Nixsa Marzan Mills

Nixsa Marzan Mills, formerly of New Marlborough, died on August 23, 2024 at Hillcrest Commons after a long illness.
Born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, she moved as an infant with her parents to the New York City area, eventually settling in Spanish Harlem and later the Bronx.
She was the eldest of five siblings and an excellent student. She received a scholarship to Oakwood Friends School in Poughkeepsie, NY and Friends World College. She lived in Kenya for a year and a half and later graduated from Lehman College in New York. She received her master's degree from Endicott and completed full study programs at both the Kushi Institute and the Four Winds Society. She was a stand-out, three-sport athlete at Oakwood and ran track at Lehman.
Nixsa was a middle school science and chemistry teacher in central Florida, south Berkshire County, and Holyoke, MA. She also taught Spanish at the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School.
As a mother of three, she competed in Tae Kwon Do and trained and performed as a belly dancer.
She moved to New Marlborough in 1992 and married Sam. They were high school sweethearts that reunited after twenty-three years and first marriages. Together they built and ran an open-air Caribbean Cantina in the village; it became an eccentric, popular, and now legendary spot.
Family and friends will miss her greatly. Many hundreds of students will remember her warm, welcoming smile and nurturing heart. Everyone will remember her vivid telling of incredible, colorful stories from her eventful life.
There will be a celebration of life by her family and friends in the near future.
Strength and beauty = Boriqua.
To send remembrances to her family please go to www.finnertyandstevens.com