Margaret Taylor

1950 - 2024

Margaret Taylor
April 7, 1950 - January 12, 2024
With the support of loving friends, Margaret died peacefully at her home in San Francisco on January 12, 2024. Her return home followed months of hospital - based care for cancer. Margaret thoroughly enjoyed being back home surrounded by her books and art, eating delicious meals and enjoying the company of loved ones.
Cherished only child of Martha Frances Lois Marie Hakes of Salt Lake City, Utah and Dwight Taylor of Dayton, Ohio, Margaret was born in San Francisco at the old Children's Hospital on California Street. She was predeceased by her life partner, Nancy Lou Hopson in 2008.
Margaret always loved reading, writing, music, and the theater. Margaret was a gifted stage actor and reader. She started acting in grade school and took every part she could get. When Margaret played the character of Nurse Ratchet in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," she was so convincing that patrons booed her all the way out of the theater and into the street.
Margaret's elegant cursive handwritten notes, cards and inscribed books were among the many gifts of her friendship. She loved being with the beauty of nature and taking walks in Golden Gate Park. Margaret was fluent in French with a Sorbonne accent and loved the English language for its opportunity to express something in so many ways. She had a very reassuring voice and listened without judging.
Margaret was a longtime supporter of human rights. As a legal administrator for over 20 years, Margaret used her skills to make sure the most vulnerable and disenfranchised had access to the courts. Margaret truly believed that all people have the fundamental right to a life of dignity from birth to death, free from fear and abuse.
In the 1970's, she worked with the San Francisco and National Gray Panthers (age and youth in action) to make sure that liberty from transfer trauma would be recognized as a substantive right for fragile and elderly nursing home residents facing involuntary relocation. She happily picked up Maggie Kuhn, the founder of the National Gray Panthers, from the airport and shuttled her around San Francisco to help with the cause. In the 1980's, Margaret worked on the initial appellate papers in Riese v. Saint Mary's Hospital which established informed consent rights to nonemergency forcible drugging for legally competent civil detainees in California. Without hesitation or complaint, she stayed up for two days to finish the legal papers.
Most of all, she enjoyed listening to and being present with other people, especially children and young people. Margaret was a devoted member of the Golden Gate Philharmonic Youth Orchestra Board of Directors. Margaret faithfully volunteered for this youth orchestra by attending and providing invaluable support to these young musicians at every rehearsal and performance. Margaret enthusiastically supported students through performance anxiety by acting as a practice audience when children expressed fear of playing in front of an audience.
Margaret was a deeply loving and spiritual person and possessed an unwavering wicked sense of humor. Her memory endures in our hearts.
A Requiem Mass for Margaret Taylor will be held at All Saints' Episcopal Church in San Francisco at 1350 Waller Street, San Francisco, Calif. 94117 on March 2, 2024, at 11 a.m.
In lieu of flowers, donations are suggested to the Gray Panthers of San Francisco to 1742 Fell Street, San Francisco, Calif. 94117-2027 and the Golden Gate Philharmonic Youth Orchestra Scholarship Fund, PO Box 170301, San Francisco, Calif. 94117.