James Lee Taylor
June 17, 1946 – January 10, 2007
Son of Arnon, who was son of Nancy Ethel Taylor, daughter of Kate Baker
Jim moved to Florida with his mother and siblings after she and Uncle Arnon split up and I didn’t see him again until he was grown up. Diana tells a story about when he came back up to New York to live with Arnon. She knew little about Arnon’s first family, so when her parents told her they were taking her for a ride and a surprise, she was sure it was going to be a pony. Instead, they went to the airport and stood by a fence until a teenage boy got off the plane. That’s when she first met Jim.
Jim loved the outdoors. Diana remembers the knee high rubber boots he wore when he checked his trap line. They had been Arnon’s, but Jim complained that they leaked. Arnon, always interested in scientific data, filled the laundry tub with water and put them in it to see where the leak was, but they couldn’t find one. Nevertheless, the next time Jim wore the boots, he came back complaining that they still leaked and he wanted Arnon to get him a new pair. So the next time Jim went out, Arnon tagged along and came back laughing. The mystery was solved when he watched Jim wade through a culvert to get to a pond. Jim tried so hard to keep from bumping his head on the ceiling of the culvert that he didn’t notice that the water was three inches higher than the boots.
Arnon did some more detective work to find out why the paddles on the canoe were looking so cracked and beat up. Jim couldn’t imagine what had caused it. So the next time Jim and one of his friends took the canoe out, Arnon took Diana along to see what they were up to. As she tells it, “One of the guys would stand by the edge of the pond where there was a pipe going to the creek. The other was at the other end of the pipe. When one would yell, ‘Fish!’, the other got ready because when the carp came through, it was his job to beat it to death with the canoe paddle. Many carp got away but the rocks and the ground took a heck of a pounding with the canoe paddle.”
Jim went to the Syracuse University School of Forestry, so I shouldn’t have been so surprised when I found out a couple years ago that he had ended up working in the paper industry. I had, too, but from an environmental direction. He was surprised, as well, that he hadn’t known about my work. He had been fighting cancer and told me in an e-mail, “I’m done with chemotherapy and received a clean bill of health. I only want to work for two more years until I’m 62. That’s long enough for me.” He almost made it. Ironically, after beating cancer, he died of a heart attack when he was 61.
Photo: Jim and Bob Taylor
3 comments:
When I was first thinking of putting together a book of Taylor recipes, Mom told me that I HAD to get Jim Taylor to send some of his.
He did, and he was the first. After that, I knew I could not go back--in whatever form, this thing had to go through!
His love of his children, and his love of Jean, shone through in the way he described each of his dishes.
I do not remember him, but I so found myself wishing that I could get to know this marvelous cousin. He so readily gave his time and energy to me and to my project, someone he too did not remember, I am sure.
Jim, we miss you.
Blessed Jim! When Arnon and Alice split I decided that I would keep in touch with those 5 kids in case they needed a lifeline in the future. They should know that the Taylors were there for them and I was not sure that Alice would let them know. It was not easy and I missed some I'm sure but Jim was the only one who each year thru the many let me know that he was grateful for the card I sent. [ Yes , Nance sometimes did and George but Jim waS CONSISTANT] I still find it vety hard to not hear from him and am glad that Jean keeps me in the loop!.
One story, just before the split, Jim and Jack came up to us on Fielding RD and stayed a few days. They borrowed a neighbors bike and rode [ one walked, taking turns] about a mile down the road to a fruit stand and carried back to us a watermelon!!! I was flabbergasted ! Loved them even more! Aunt CB
It's a great picture of them.
Thanks for sharing! I so enjoy
the stories.
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