In 1950 Fair Nicholson died of cancer at age 72. The Nicholsons had been married over 50 years. William Nicholson was quoted as saying, "It was hard to be parted from her after so many years. My wife believed in me but her faith in eternal life was weak. She tried to believe, but she had her doubts. There came times when she talked of dying." Fifteen years later, at the age of 88 and nearly blind and deaf, William died, and was buried alongside his wife in Clarks Grove Cemetery. The day before William went to the hospital he told the pastor from the church next-door to the Castle that "if God doesn't intervene soon, I will die."