Ethel Hendricks Taylor, 90 retired federal worker
FAMILY MEMBERS say that had she been born in a different time there would have been no limits to what Ethel Marie Hendricks Taylor might have accomplished.
FAMILY MEMBERS say that had she been born in a different time there would have been no limits to what Ethel Marie Hendricks Taylor might have accomplished.
Ms. Taylor, who grew up in South Philadelphia, died June 11. She was 90 years old.
The retired federal worker considered the raising of her two Ivy League-educated daughters her proudest accomplishment.
"If my mother met you and talked to you, within two minutes, she would let you know that she raised two doctors," said Dr. Susan C. Taylor, a noted Philadelphia dermatologist. "That was her achievement."
Her other daughter, Flora Naomi Taylor, is a psychologist.
Ethel Hendricks Taylor was born in 1926 in Washington, D.C., to Albert and Florence Holland Hendricks.
The youngest of six siblings, she was known to the family as "Kitty."
The family moved to South Philadelphia when she was young. She grew up there and worked for the Defense Logistics Agency at the Defense Personnel Support Center.
Dr. Susan Taylor said that her mother championed the importance of education, especially in the elementary-school years.
But before she moved mountains to make sure her daughters received the best schooling, Ms. Taylor took extraordinary measures when she was a teenager to get her education.
Dr. Taylor said her mother was only a freshman in high school when her older brother, home in South Philadelphia on leave from the Army, saw a letter from Overbrook High School.
At the time, the family was living in South Philadelphia. The brother asked their mother why there was a letter from Overbrook. But their mother didn't know.
They found out that "Kitty," supposedly attending South Philadelphia High, had enrolled herself in Overbrook High because she was scared of a girl who was threatening to beat her up every day.
After transferring herself to Overbrook, Kitty would walk from 18th and Catharine streets in South Philadelphia to Overbrook High, at 58th and Lancaster, a distance of about six miles each way. She sometimes saved her lunch money and caught the bus.
After graduating from high school, Ms. Taylor attended Spelman College in Atlanta for two years, but had to withdraw because of family circumstances.
In 1956, she met and married Charles Nathaniel Taylor. While they separated after five years and divorced in 1976, they both remained involved in raising Susan and Flora.
Dr. Susan Taylor said that when it was time for her to go to school, her mother didn't want her daughter to go to the local one and sought the help of then-U.S. Rep. Robert Nix. She didn't want her daughter to go to the neighborhood school.
With Nix's help, she was able to enroll Susan in the Greenfield School, which was then known as City Center School.
When Susan was ready for 7th grade, Ms. Taylor took out a loan to help pay for tuition at Friends Select for both Susan and her younger sister Flora, known as Cathy.
"Although we had financial aid, she still had to contribute [toward the tuition]" Dr. Taylor said."We knew it was a very real sacrifice for our mother to put us in private school."
Dr. Taylor graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and later Harvard Medical School. Her sister Flora graduated from Harvard University and earned her doctorate in psychology from Penn.
Ethel Taylor loved reading. Before she had children, she and a group of friends, known as Club Libra, met monthly for luncheons or other outings. She also enjoyed swimming and walking the boardwalk in Atlantic City. In later life, she enjoyed visiting the casinos there, as well as the SugarHouse and Valley Forge casinos.
In addition to her two daughters, Ms. Taylor is survived by two sons-in-law, Kemel Dawson and Seth Toney; five grandchildren, Morgan and Madison Dawson and Noah, Nicole, and Simone Toney; nieces, Deborah Finley and Zenobia Hendricks-Wright; and a host of other relatives and friends.
A Requiem Mass will be held at 10 a.m. Monday, June 30, at the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, 6361 Lancaster Ave. Interment: West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd.
215-854-5987 @ValerieRussDN