Generations of the Tommy Taylor Family Have Proudly Served Our Country

African Americans have played vital roles in America’s Armed Services’ disputes for land, wealth and freedom, dating from the Revolutionary War through the desegregation of the Armed Forces to the Gulf War, and even now with our stance on Afghanistan and Russia. African Americans regularly contributed to this country’s Armed Forces by any means needed or required. Thus, their extraordinary skillfulness to learn complicated military competencies, which seemed highly peculiar for military leaders to understand, prompted these leaders to give African American soldiers notable names like “Buffalo Soldiers” and “Tuskegee Airmen” that we still hear about today. History is chock-full of heroic and courageous African American men and women who laid down their lives for their enduring love of the United States of America.

Inside the city limits of La Grange, Texas, over a century and a half ago, the patriarch of our family, Tommy Taylor Sr., honorably incited and faithfully headed four generations of a U.S. Armed Services family. My grandfather was a devoted, true to life African American Christian family man. He treasured special instances when he could impress upon his children and grandchildren shrewd insights and knowledgeable observations.

Likewise, Mr. Taylor was favorably revered by his neighbors, fellow church members, and other townspeople because of his extremely transparent advisability in speech and his sensitivity to judiciousness in decision-making.

Tommy Taylor Sr. resided in La Grange for over 85 years. Born in 1895 to Ms. Mary Brown, he married Minnie Lee Davis and reared five children, two girls and three boys. The girls, Susie and Gladys Taylor, both spent most of their lives living in the modest community of La Grange.

Susie married and moved to Columbus, a small city south of La Grange. Susie was a superb chef and used her remarkable culinary skills to start a restaurant business. Gladys married but stayed in La Grange. Gladys aided with the farm before she married and eventually worked at her passion of caring for the ill as a home health care nursing assistant. Being the youngest, she did the most work outside of the Taylor businesses and was the only one that did not formally start her own business.

Mr. Taylor and his wife, Minnie, reared their family to love God and to value a strong, committed work ethic. These vital principles have been handed down to each generation. The Taylor family demonstrated their incessant commitment to work by maintaining a 150-acre farm near Halsted. They cultivated and harvested corn, tomatoes, potatoes and other vegetables. They planted and nurtured a sizeable pear tree orchard. From these pears, Mrs. Taylor made pear butter, pear preserves, and jelly.

Likewise, the Taylor farm generated hundreds of watermelons that sold for revenue enhancement for subsidizing local social community activities. These activities included holiday celebrations. For example, on Juneteenth, Mr. Taylor would make and decorate floats and on July 4th there would be enormous dances and sock hops featuring well-known African American entertainers like James Brown and B.B. King. Mr. Taylor also sponsored rodeos and baseball games for the African American community. Needless to say, the Taylor family provided food and drinks for all of these celebrations.

Also, Mr. Taylor taught his family to be civic-minded. When the Taylor children began elementary school at the African American school in Fayetteville, a small town outside of La Grange, there were no bathrooms inside the school nor was there access to running water. The Taylor family dug a well and physically added a restroom inside the one-room school building. At Christmas time, the male family members would dress as Santa Claus and hand out Christmas bags to all of the African American children at the school and at the local city Christmas celebrations.

Given that the family lived on a farm between La Grange and Fayetteville, there was no bus transportation for the rural children to get to La Grange to go to school. This was before the schools were integrated. The Taylor family petitioned the Fayetteville School District to provide bus service. Amazingly, the school paid a teacher who was working in Fayetteville to drive the Taylor children and two others to school every day. The school also paid one of the parents to drive the two families to the local highway to be picked up by a teacher as she drove by going to work. The Taylors eventually petitioned the La Grange Independent School District to send a bus to pick up rural families and transport them to Randolph School in La Grange because the African American school in Fayetteville only went to the fourth grade. All Fayetteville students needed transportation to the Randolph School to complete their junior high and high school grades. Grades 1 to 12 were taught at Randolph until 1965 it closed when all the schools were integrated.

The young Taylor men were multi-talented. Their formal schooling taught them skills they used to expand the family businesses and construct places to dance, swim and enjoy life. Once the Taylor children had become adults, the family diversified their farming business by utilizing the skills the male family members learned while attending school. Tommy Taylor Sr. taught himself rudimentary building and carpentry skills. The younger Taylor sons were able to efficiently learn these basic skills and provide an individual talent that advanced the family businesses.

Each of the Taylor sons had a special skill set. Tommy Jr., the eldest son, was a planner, recruiter, and organizer. He had fine carpentry skills and was known for building cabinets and other interior home items. Edgar, the second son, was an architect, a plumber and had exquisite carpentry skills. He drew up all plans for their buildings when needed. Marion, the youngest, had a natural ability to fix anything mechanical including cars, radios, TVs, etc. He was an electrician/mechanic and learned to do electrical work for their housing jobs. These combined skills were used to build many homes and businesses in La Grange and the surrounding cities and counties. The brothers worked together for decades as Taylor Brothers Contractors.