Pauline "Polly" Taylor

Beulah Pauline “Polly” Taylor stepped into the arms of her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on January 13, 2024. She was a resident of Gran Gran’s Place in Yukon where the staff took such loving care of her the last couple of years for which her family will be forever grateful.

Polly was one of eleven children born to R.U. “Brownie” and Hattie Brown who both preceded her in death. She was born on July 31, 1933 in Berwyn, Oklahoma. She spent her formative years in Ardmore. She was the Salutatorian of her graduating class at Dickson High School.

Polly met Alvin Lee Taylor who she would go on to marry on April 18, 1953. They married at the Carter County Court House and they were wed almost 43 years at the time he passed away. In 1958, they made Oklahoma City their home.

Polly liked to read and sew but her true love was teaching Sunday school. At Meridian Avenue Baptist Church she taught Sunday School for over 50 years, was a member of WMU and worked in the day care.

She taught her family the importance of the Lord and family. She will be remembered as a loving wife and mother, and nanny to her grandchildren.

She worked for years at Mayfield Middle School and served as the cafeteria lady.

In addition to her parents and her husband, she was also preceded in death by her siblings, Gerald Brown and wife Terry, Richard Brown, Betty Porter and husband Hubert, Sue Bell and husband Wayne, Mary Brogden and husband Robert, Hattie Riner and husband Rex, Linda Taylor and husband Bill and brother-in-law Dub Lowden.

Polly leaves to carry on her legacy her children Pamela Soltani of Yukon, OK, Jerry Taylor and wife Nell of National City, CA, Richard Taylor of Canyon Lake, TX, Ronnie Taylor and wife Jan of Canyon Lake, TX, Laquita Kielhorn and husband Robert of OKC, OK, Gary Don Taylor of Okarche, OK, sisters, Elsie Lowden of Ada, OK, Barbara “Dolly” Keith of Ardmore, OK, Lorena Bryant and husband Ron of Ardmore, OK, sister-in-law Betty Brown, sixteen grandchildren, 33 great grandchildren; four great great grandchildren and too numerous nieces and nephews to count.

Visitation will be Thursday, January 16th at Chapel Hill Funeral Home from 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm.

Friday, January 17th, at 10:00 a.m., a service to celebrate Polly’s life will be held in the Chapel at Chapel Hill Funeral Home and burial in Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens.

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Nema’s Obituary

I felt I needed to write my own type of obituary one that told a story, my story about my Nanny.

We will not mention her first name, but it starts with B, Pauline Taylor was born July 31 1933, in a town called Berwyn but now known as Gene Autry. 11 kids, 2 boys and 9 girls, she was # 4. She got married and had 6 kids and a ton of grandkids, 5 generations worth. I could tell you all the stories I’ve heard about when she was growing up, or how she met my papa but I’m going to share the part of her life I experienced.

Some of my earliest memories are spending time with my Nanny & Papa before I remember there being any other cousins that obviously came along a ruined my solo run. When I went places with them, I never sat in the backseat I rode on the arm rest aka center console, or the hump right in between the two of them. Nanny always a had drink in the cupholder, snacks, and later on when papa quit smoking there was gum. We would listen to country music and I would sing along sometimes getting them to join in with a verse or two. Nanny didn’t like those 7-word country songs, the ones that repeated the same 7 words over and over. She liked the songs that told a story. She also liked her gospel songs and she enjoyed her Christmas songs as well. My fist memories are of records and 8 tracks being played but later I remember Nanny had that pink boom box with the cassette player that sat in the dining room or her bedroom for years. Playing her favorite cassettes while she cleaned, cooked, or would just sit and listen while rocking in her chair. So, my loves of country music, and the need to have these 3 things with me at all times: a giant cup of water, gum, and chap stick must have come from her. I also know I am not the only one in our family like this.

When I was younger my mom, sister and I lived around the corner and later a couple miles away from my Nanny & Papa. While my mom worked Nanny took care of us, and by us, I mean all her grands and some neighbor kids. I was the oldest before Phil came along. So, at any given time she could have up to 6 of us. I’m exhausted after spending a Friday evening with my 4 grands so I can’t imagine summer breaks, before and after school with that many or more. Phil & Jamie, Taryn & Clint, Casie & I then came Rocky, Ryan, Andy and Jesse. While the older kids went to school, she would teach pre-school to the younger kids. She also made sure we had a hot breakfast every morning, cooked us lunch and made sure we had healthy snacks in between. Oh, and made sure dinner was cooked for all of us once our parents got there. My Papa was a chef so he left the house early in the morning and got home in the middle of the afternoon. That meant Nanny was flying solo with all of us with no help. I don’t ever remember not having fun, or being bored, I never felt neglected, she had a way of knowing how to make you feel special. Now that I have my own grands, I know how she felt and why she truly enjoyed the chaos we created and having us there filled her heart, we truly completed her. I know she would have never changed any of it. We brought her more joy, peace, and love than I can describe.

Nanny and Papa always opened their home to everyone. Being from such a large family remember 10 siblings and then having 6 kids of her own, I am not sure if they were ever “empty nesters”. After papa passed, I think most of the kids and most of the grands lived with Nanny for short or extended periods of time. There were times multiple family members lived there at the same time. Also visiting family members from either Ardmore or California. My sister and some of her college roommates lived with her a couple of summer. If the walls could talk. Nanny always did your laundry because she didn’t have enough of her own clothes for a full load. There was always breakfast, lunch, and dinner cooked. If you didn’t let her know you wouldn’t be home for a meal, she would give you a piece of her mind. You made sure after that you let her know. Nanny taught all of us to be this same way, open your home, cook a meal, do a load of laundry, be a shoulder to cry on or lend a listening ear because you never know what someone else is going through. Nanny’s love language was acts of service and she showed us that love tenfold.

Nanny loved Jesus and her church family. If you walk away not knowing how much both of these things meant to her you were obviously not paying attention. There were times growing up we spent as much time at Meridian Ave as we did at Nanny’s. Or more importantly Meridian Ave was integrated into her home. Between teaching Sunday School, hosting vacation bible school in her own backyard, going to Falls Creek as a cook with us for a week, severing on every church committee she could, and always reaching out and visiting those in her church family. If you stayed the night with Nanny on a Saturday night you were up early for Sunday school and church. Waiting at home after was always a big Sunday dinner with dessert. If there was ever a Mount Rushmore type of monument built in the courtyard at Meridian Ave, Nanny’s face would have been on it. I truly believe she was the backbone of that church and she took pride in that.

When she “raised” most of us to school age and Papa retired she decided it was time to take her talents into the working world. Now remember her house was home base for all of us including our friends. Everyone knew her as Nanny. So, it was no wonder when she started working at Mayfield Junior High as a cafeteria lady, she greeted those kids with a smile and a hug and they in returned called her Nanny. It wasn’t long before kids that didn’t even know her, were calling her Nanny. I am pretty sure even when those original kids moved on to High School the name still continued. In talking to our childhood friends these past few days, it has really warmed my heart to know how much of an impact our Nanny had on them.

Nanny enjoyed spending time with family. It is really hard for me to remember a time when I was growing up and when my kids were growing up that she wasn’t at an event, birthday parties, school activities, holidays, hospital visits, graduations, military graduations, church, backyard bible school, Falls Creek, and family vacations. How many people are blessed to say their grandparents were involved in all of those things with them. That your greatest blessing, accomplishments, milestones, and memories have them involved in each and everyone. I am the lucky one I lived all of these events and memories with her. I hope I can do those stories justice and share how much my Nanny truly meant to me. How much I hope her legacy will live on through me. That I can live long enough to meet at least one great great grand. We were blessed that Nanny got to meet 4 of hers. I can say toward the end seeing those babies is the only time I saw the sparkle in her eye. That is how I know being our Nanny was her true calling in life and the one thing she loved most of all. Thank you for all that you did because I know you didn’t have to. I love you! Your favorite Nema.

Nanny has 16 grandchildren and of those 16, I think I was her favorite.

(Casie – Kaycee)

I think I was her favorite because if I wanted my sandwich to be made in a certain order- bread, mayonnaise, bologna, cheese, bread, then she made my sandwich in that order- bread, mayonnaise, bologna, cheese, bread.

I think I was her favorite because if she made lunch, like beans and cornbread, which I didn't like, she made me a cheeseburger instead. And she always had pickles in the refrigerator and cookies in the cookie jar for me.

I think I was her favorite because she always let me sit on her lap when she told us the story of Epimonondus, that noodlehead.

I think I was her favorite because after lunch when we all were supposed to be resting in the den for a nap, she never got on to me for sneaking up to the dining room to steal a French-fry or two from PaPa's lunch.

I think I was her favorite because she let me hang around in the kitchen, even when I was probably in the way, while she cooked Sunday lunch with my mom.

I think I was her favorite because she always made me a chocolate pie for Thanksgiving dinner and another one for Christmas dinner.

I think I was her favorite because when I was in college, she would let me use her washer and dryer so I could do my laundry. If I planned it correctly, she would even do it for me.

I think I was her favorite because she let me and my college roommates live with her for the summer. And then, several years later, she let me move back in, but this time with my husband and my one-year-old son.

I think I was her favorite because every time I would talk to her on the phone, she always said, "Well, come by and see me."

And I think I was her favorite because no matter how long I had been at her house, she always said, "You don't have to leave so soon."

So Nanny never actually told me that I was her favorite. Maybe she made sandwiches a certain way for everybody and maybe she made beans and cornbread because everyone else loved them. Maybe she had pickles in the refrigerator because all my cousins liked pickles. She could fit at least three other grandchildren on her lap when she read stories and she made German Chocolate Cake, Red Velvet Cake, coconut pie, and other goodies for her family that loved those desserts on the holidays. Maybe she let me hang around the kitchen so I could put ice in the glasses or wash the dishes. Maybe she let me, my friends and my family live with her because she let every other one of my family members live with her at some point too. And maybe she did my laundry because I wasn't doing it correctly and she didn't want me to break her washer. So maybe I wasn't her favorite but I do know she loved me.

I know this because when she had reached the point where she couldn't even complete a sentence, I had hugged her and kissed her and said, "I love you Nanny" and she tilted her head up, looked right in my eyes and said, clear as day, "I love you too."

Jerry & Nell with Ted the Dog

Mom enjoyed picnics in the park with us. But her favorite outing was going on long drives and listening to Ray Price. She would sit there tapping her fingers and her feet and reminiscing about long drives with her sweetheart Al. I think Jerry and I enjoyed that more than she did. We always found a little country diner along the way to stop for lunch and Mom would eat more than Jerry, Ted and I put together. Those drives became a routine. And we loved it! She had a memory like an elephant. Everything she gave me had a long story behind it. Some of her memories went back to her elementary school days. Mom was and still is a blessing for Jerry and me. Her love for Ted was unmatched except for his love for her. Every visit began with him curled up on a blanket on her feet.

Stories about Polly from Dolly’s Little Books

WHAT A MESS!

If the eggs were plentiful, Mama sold them at church and to some teachers at school.

One morning Polly, the oldest in school at the time, had to deliver some eggs to one of her teachers. It had come a gully-washer (a really hard rain) the night before, so Daddy took the kids to school in his old jalopy. Polly sat in the front seat with him with her paper sack full of eggs held protectively in her lap. She didn't want those eggs to accidentally get broken.

The heavy rain had turned the roads to mud and chug holes. On the way to school, Daddy hit an especially deep chug hole which bounced his passengers all of the way to the roof of the car. Polly came down hard! Of course, the eggs in the sack came down just as hard, hitting together.

Have you ever hit two eggs together?

They break! Broken eggs leak through a paper sack and whatever is beneath them gets covered in egg yuck. So you know what happened to Polly.

The front of Polly's dress was under the sack and caught the mixture of egg white and egg yellow that dripped through the sack.

The front of her dress got saturated and looked really nasty.

Polly said, "I can't go to school looking like this."

Daddy, never prone to be sympathetic with the woes of his girls, promptly said, "You need to go to school. Go in there and wipe yourself off and go on to class."

Polly's eyes got huge, her mouth gaped open, and finally she sputtered, "I can't go to school like this. I'm not getting out."

Daddy took a long, angry look at her rebellious face and nasty dress. Suddenly he relented as a thought struck him. "Okay, I'll take you home to change." They needed to get another dozen eggs anyway.

POLLY and AL

In 1951, Betty got Polly a job at Eden’s as soon as she graduated from high school. She moved into an apartment. It was in the red brick building on the corner of 2nd and Washington, directly across from what was then Ardmore High School.

Polly moved into Ardmore because they didn't think Daddy's old jalopy was up to daily trips into Ardmore. Also, the culture of the day expected children to get a job and to get their own place as soon as they graduated from high school.

Polly had been working at Eden’s for about a year. Sometime during 1952, Elmo hired a new cook, one Alvin Lee Taylor. My, was he good-looking. And according to Polly, he was just a little too sure of himself. He was retired from being a paratrooper in the Air Force, but after three divorces, he had not retired from being quite the lady's man. He set his cap for our Miss Polly, irritating her to the point of chasing him out the backdoor of the restaurant with a butcher knife.

Perhaps it was this behavior of Polly's that caused Elmo to say. "You're the best darn waitress that I've ever seen work; but you're the meanest woman I've ever met." Polly just laughed and hustled off.

After chasing Al out of the restaurant, Polly began to notice some of his good qualities, such as the care he took with the food he cooked and how much nicer he was after realizing what a handful she was.

She finally went out with him but was very hesitant about introducing him to her Baptist parents. They acted as if a divorced man was kin to Satan.

Mama and Daddy really liked Al, though, so he and Polly were married a short time later. They continued working at Edens' for a few months but quit Edens' to go to OKC to look for a job, leaving Edens' in their rearview mirror.

MAMA'S HANDS

by Harvey Albright (preacher at Gene Autry)

They drew water from a hand-dug well.

With a rope and a bucket that worked very well.

They washed my clothes on a tin rub board

And dipped the water with an old dry gourd.

They heated the water in a big black pot

Fired by wood that was about to rot.

They ironed my shirts with a heavy old iron

That had to be heated (not worth a darn!)

They quilted in the fall with scraps gathered all year.

For, after all, there was winter to fear.

They cooked on a stove that burned coal oil.

Crude as it was, it made stuff boil.

The big word "Perfection" was the stove's brand name.

I have often wondered from whence the name came!

But with that stove Mama's hands did can

Peaches, berries and beans which she had raised in the sand.

They gave me my bath in a No. 10 tub,

After the splintered floor she had diligently scrubbed.

They rubbed my chest with Mentholatum and Vicks

In a sincere effort my lungs to fix.

They put me to bed with a towel at my feet

When outside the frail house came the snow and the sleet.

Could I ever forget what they did for me–

Those beautiful hands that will never be.