William "Bill" Taylor

William "Bill" Taylor

Marion, VA 

My daddy died in Spring Hill, Tennessee on the evening of November 2, 2023.  He battled depression and bipolar disease for years, and then in May of this year, he was formally diagnosed with Alzheimer’s dementia, which I suspect he had been dealing with for all of the more than nine years following my mother’s death in 2014. 

Daddy was born in Welch, West Virginia on October 7, 1942 to Ada Virginia Privett Taylor and her husband.  He was beloved and protected by his maternal grandmother, Easter Privett Sheets, whose tenacity and humor Daddy admired and whose love he cherished.  Daddy graduated from Chilhowie High School and attended Marion College while living at Granny Dutton’s boarding house, where he met a lovely, fun-loving, kind, long-legged creature named Janice Owens.  He made her his wife on January 20, 1962.  They were married a little more than 52 years when Janice, my mom, died after a seven-year battle with a hereditary liver disease.  Daddy mourned my mom’s death every single day for the rest of his life.

My brother Kent was born in September 1963, and I came along 16 months later.  Daddy worked hard to give Momma, Kent, and me many of the things we wanted and all of the things we needed, including a fine education for Kent and I.  We lived in Richmond, Virginia in the early 1970s when little kids were being bused an hour or more away from their homes in an ill-considered effort to accomplish desegregation.  When I was in second grade and Kent was in fourth grade, Kent was being bused more than an hour one way each day to a school across town.  One day, Kent brought his reading book home, and to my delight, I saw that Kent was using the same reading book as a fourth grader that I was using as a second grader.  While I chose to believe that this was evidence of my superior intellect, it became apparent to our parents that Kent, together with all the other fourth graders of all races in his school, were receiving an inferior education.  At that time, Daddy was working the graveyard shift at Philip Morris; even though he was exhausted when he got home every morning, he took an additional job selling Singer sewing machines so that he and Momma could send us both to private school for Kent’s fifth-grade year and my third-grade year.   He was a good daddy.

Daddy loved studying history.  Our family vacations usually included destinations like Mount Vernon, Jamestown, Appomattox Courthouse, and Fort Sumter.  He loved The History Channel and watching documentaries.  Up until about six weeks before he died, he could still discuss World War II, the American Revolution, Virginia history, the push west towards the Pacific, and all the great Virginians who played a part.  Much to his delight, he had a 100-year-old World War II veteran as a friend and neighbor at the assisted living facility where he lived during the last two years of his life.

Daddy obeyed the Gospel about 15 years ago, and while he dealt with chronic back pain and other health issues for as long as I can remember, he had the hope that all Christians have.  That one sweet day, we will rise up in glory and power with new immortal and imperishable bodies, and that we will live an eternal life of indescribable joy in the presence of a Father who loves us so much that he sacrificed his own Son on the cross so that our sins can be forgiven.  While on one hand, now that both my parents and my brother are dead, I am sad beyond my ability to explain, but I am equally joyful that they finished their races, they kept the faith, and they received their crowns of righteousness.  They are victorious over sin and death, and so I will rejoice in the goodness of God.

Daddy is survived by his family, including me, Kim Christopherson, and my husband Brent, and his brothers and sisters Jim and Donna Owens, Jean Dishner, Lester Owens, Linda and Bimbo Blevins, Judy Owens, Jesse and Lisa Owens, and numerous nieces and nephews.

Visitation will be held on Saturday, November 11, 2023 at Bradley's Funeral Home Chapel in Marion from 1:00-2:00PM. Funeral services will follow at 2:00PM in the chapel. Afterwards, Daddy will be buried beside Momma at Rose Lawn Cemetery in Marion. Expressions of sympathy may be sent to the family at www.bradleysfh.com. Bradley's Funeral Home of Marion is serving the Taylor Family.