Extracted from The Shreveport Times (Shreveport, LA)
Sunday, June 19, 2005

Edith Elon Welch Taylor
(Mrs. Armon P. Taylor)

SHREVEPORT, LA - Elon Welch Taylor, 86, died peacefully on Friday June 17, 2005 after a brief illness. A funeral service will be held at 3:30 PM Monday, June 20, 2005 in the Chapel of the First Baptist Church of Shreveport. Officiating will be Dr. Greg Hunt of the First Baptist Church of Shreveport and Ray Boswell. Interment will follow at Forest Park Cemetery. Two family visitations will be held: one on Sunday, June 19, 2005 at the Rose-Neath Funeral Home on Marshall Street in Shreveport, from 3-6 PM; and the other Monday, June 20, 2005 at the first Baptist Church Parlor from 2-3 PM.

Elon Taylor was preceded in death by her husband of 51 years Armon P. Taylor of Joyce, Louisiana; and her brother Rudolph Vincent Welch. She is survived by her brother Grady Ellis Welch and sister-in-law Myrtle Welch, of Pineville, Louisiana; and by her two children - daughter Janis Peterson and husband Galen Peterson of Burdick, Kansas; and son Paul Taylor of The Woodlands, Texas. Grandchildren include: Amy Elissa Taylor of The Woodlands, Texas and Craig Paul Taylor of LaMesa, California, and Ana Marie and Bonnie Karamalegos; great-grandchildren include Kyle, Austin and Tanner Peterson, and Tessa and Jaden Ohnemiller.

Elon Taylor was born December 1, 1918, in Poplar Springs, Mississippi and was the oldest child of Marie Dean and Ellis F. Welch. She graduated valedictorian (straight-A average) from Newton High School and attended East Central Junior College for a year before the family moved to Bossier City, Louisiana in 1937. She worked at Pelican Supply and Western Auto where she met A. P. Taylor. They married in 1939.

She was a devoted Baptist all of her adult life and a member of the Highland Baptist Church for 40 years and later the First Baptist Church of Shreveport. She was a founding member of the Women's Missionary Union at Highland and was active in the administration and organization of both the church library and historical archives.

The pallbearers will be Rick Boswell, Richard Hunter, Don Johnson, Richard Shelton, Mike Parrish and Stephen Porter.

The family wishes to thank the doctors and nurses in the Critical Care Unit at Willis-Knighton Pierremont Hospital. Their competent and compassionate care, their tireless and dedicated service made a difficult week much more bearable. The family is especially grateful to Linda Parrish for her innumerable hours of support and comfort; and the loving service provided by other caregivers Barbara Booker and Ruthie Walton.

Words from the family cannot describe the vast love and friendship between Elon Taylor and her many friends and neighbors. Their frequent visits...the many lunches, birthday celebrations, coffees, cakes and phone calls over the years...kept her mind and spirit young and alive far past the point where her body could keep pace. For their friendship, she and her family are eternally grateful.

In lieu of flowers memorial contributions can be made to the Direct Missions Program at the First Baptist Church of Shreveport.

Rose-Neath Funeral Home
Marshall St. Chapel 222-0348