Glenn Taylor

Jesse Glenn Taylor, 90, of Winston-Salem NC, an Air Force Veteran, retired US Postal Service mail carrier, and dedicated family man stepped on heaven’s shores March 10th, 2022 following his earthly body’s wearisome struggle with congestive heart failure.  Just months before his passing Glenn was heard saying that his favorite hymn was “Fairest Lord Jesus.”  We can only imagine what their joyous meeting in heaven now is like!

Glenn was born July 21st, 1931 in Winston Salem NC to WWI veteran Jesse Gilmore Taylor and his wife Dora Whitley Taylor.  Glenn often recalled fond memories of growing up on West End Boulevard with kind neighbors and great classmate friends at Reynolds High School.  Life on the boulevard got even better when there he met beautiful young Doris Day, not the famous actress from Hollywood bearing the same name, but the even prettier country girl from North Wilkesboro NC.  Glenn and Doris soon fell in love, got married, and began the enjoyment of 67 rewarding years together before Doris passed in 2018.

Glenn served in the US Air Force from 1951 to 1955 including a multi-year tour of duty at Elmendorf Air Force base in Anchorage, Alaska. After an honorable discharge he returned with his wife and first-born son Melvin to North Carolina, lived in Raleigh, and worked as a Greyhound bus driver on Carolina and Virginia costal routes.  Three years later Glenn returned with his family to Winston Salem to follow in his father’s footsteps and begin a career with the US Postal Service.  Glenn often recalled the good ‘ol days of getting to know folks along his routes in north, east, and downtown Winston-Salem. He retired from the USPS in 1986.

Glenn was a man who always liked to stay busy.  Even after his Postal Service retirement he continued working for many years operating a home-based business buying, repairing, and selling trucks, tractors, and farm equipment.  He was an excellent self-taught mechanic and is especially remembered for always treating his customers with kind and honest service. Through all his days Glenn was a dedicated, hard-working husband and father who always provided for and took great care of his family.

Glenn is also remembered for having an adventuresome spirit.  In his younger years he enjoyed riding motorcycles, driving race cars at Bowman Gray Stadium, taking an across-the-USA trip to visit family in Ukiah CA, and later boarding a flight for Texas to begin Air Force basic training.  In the late 50s he purchased a Luscombe light aircraft, learned to fly, and began to see his hometown of Winston-Salem from a whole new perspective!

In the 60s and 70s Glenn enjoyed taking his wife Doris and sons Melvin and Robert on frequent road trips to the Blue Ridge mountains, Myrtle Beach, and the Outer Banks of NC.  They also traveled to Washington DC and in the summer of 1966 to the Grand Canyon, the coast and redwood forests of California, and Pikes Peak in Colorado.  Years later after becoming grandparents Glenn and his wife Doris continued their adventures with get-aways to New York City, Seattle WA, Albuquerque NM, and to visit family in the Alamo City of San Antonio, TX.

Glenn grew up attending Calvary Baptist Church in Winston-Salem and later faithfully led his family in membership and attendance at Salem Baptist Church.  Later in the 80s he and his wife Doris made Gospel Light Baptist church in Walkertown NC their new church home.  Glenn served there as bus ministry driver for nearly 20 years, often treating kids on his route to after church lunch-time stops at McDonalds.  Glenn enjoyed reading the Bible, studying history, and listening to Christian radio.  Most importantly he lived out his faith in practical ways, always blessing his neighbors, customers, folks along his postal routes, strangers along life’s way, and especially the six generations of his beloved family preceding and now following him.

In addition to his parents Glenn was preceded in death by his dear wife Doris Day Taylor who passed away in 2018, and his son Robert Allen Taylor who in 1979 was tragically killed in a motorcycle traffic accident at 19 years of age.  Glenn is survived by his son Melvin (Mel) Taylor, his grandson Zachary Taylor, three granddaughters Marie McMillan, Kelly West, and Kristin Cordes, and the promising young lives of six great-grandsons Jackson, Jeremiah, Caleb, Judah, Nathan, and Daniel, and six great-granddaughters Tessa, Eva, Leah, Katherine, Eden, and Aimee, plus in Korea his soon to be adopted great-granddaughter Zivah.

Glenn will always be remembered by his family for his dedication to God, country, and family, for his character and integrity as a straight-forward honest soul who alway sought to do what’s right, for his hard work and thriftiness, for his adventuresome spirit, and most of all for his desire to know God more and point his family toward the wisdom, grace, glory, goodness and love of our Creator, King, and Savior.

Funeral services for Glenn will be held Monday March 21st at 2pm at Hayworth-Miller Kernersville, led by Pastor Frank Shumate, with a one hour visitation prior to the service. Glenn will be buried next to his dear wife Doris at Oaklawn Memorial Cemetery, 3250 High Point Rd, Winston-Salem, NC 27107.