Birth date: Sep 20, 1955 Death date: Oct 20, 2024
John Jeffrey Taylor Obituary Born: September 20, 1955 Died: October 20, 2024 Services: October 28, 2024 John Jeffrey Taylor of Memphis, TN born September 20, 1955, passed away at the age of 69 after a long illness on October 20, Read Obituary
I feel like I knew Jeff for much of my life growing up. Our families lived in the same neighborhood, we all vacationed together at Bay Point, and I used to babysit his little sister, Donna. I spent a lot of time at their house in Whitehaven and Mrs. Taylor even gave me her recipe for fried chicken. I distinctly remember it started with “Take 2 whole chickens” which I
thought was crazy until I realized she was feeding Mr. Taylor, Phil and Jeff along with Donna and herself. When I left Memphis to go to the University of TN, we kept in touch and ended up dating for quite a while. Jeff was handsome and exciting, especially if you were a sophomore in
college, and most of all he was fun!
He would drive up to Knoxville for games or just to visit for the weekend and he was always so kind, thoughtful and generous. We would go to a game or spend the day in Gatlinburg, and I just remember how much fun we had and how funny he could be. He was so much fun I often missed class but hey, you’re only young once, right? When you are in college, you rarely have a
lot of expendable income nor do your friends. When Jeff would come to town, he would always take me to some lovely restaurant for dinner and then somewhere for drinks. He would often invite my roommate to come along or some of my other friends and they were crazy about him. Jeff also introduced me to a different kind of music than I usually listened to and to this day I can't hear a John Prine song without thinking of him and smiling :)
Eventually the distance became too much and we stopped dating,but it was not acrimonious in the least. We remained friends, although I didn’t see him often, and as frequently happens we just sort of drifted apart. I was shocked when I heard that he had passed but so honored, that Donna asked me to share some of my memories of her brother and our time together. He was a
lovely, gentle man and I will miss him.
