Julie Taylor

We don’t know what Julie’s last words were but our money is on, “Don’t forget about my party. It’s gonna be okay. I love you to the moon and back.” She left us on January 24, 2022 after fighting like hell not to be a COVID statistic. She was so in love with her life - her students, her patients, her best friends, her back porch, her family, and her “baby girl” (who was 31 years old). She wasn’t done with any of us yet but it seems like God had better plans for her. Her grand-dog, Henry, had recently passed and we’re thinking it had something to do with him. He could be a handful and he loved his Gaga.

Julie Beth (Nifong) (Reece) Taylor was born May 16, 1961 in Winston Salem, NC to Nancy Ann Pierce and J. Carroll Nifong. She was a radiation therapist for 30 years treating patients at Forsyth Medical Center and, most recently, teaching the next generation of therapists as a clinical instructor at Forsyth Technical Community College where she was adored by her students.

With Julie, what you saw is what you got. And you got a lot. If you knew her for a moment, you’d know her as joy. If you were lucky enough to know her longer, you’d know her as home. When she wasn’t stirring up trouble with her lifelong friend, Danita, she was holding court on her back porch with anyone who happened to walk in her (unlocked) front door. She’d have the stereo turned up loud and her CD changer on shuffle. She left us with Allison Kraus, Chris Stapleton, P!nk, and the latest Adele on rotation. If she wasn’t “jamming out” she was “building houses” (aka watching HGTV) or cooking along with The Pioneer Woman.

Julie is survived by her daughter, Sarah Beth Reece of Whispering Pines (Richard Charles Roberts), who inherited her mother’s love of critters and a bit of her green thumb, as well as her brother, J. Pierce Nifong of Lewisville, sister, Jaime Carol Gray of Lexington, dearest friend, Danita Doby Flippin, her toothless dog, Candy, and too many plants to name.  It takes a village, as she’d say, and she leaves behind one heck of a village to carry on her legacy of laughter, kindness, and a good time. She’s greeted in Heaven by her parents, her older sister, Jennifer Ann James, her aunt, Judy Carol Pierce, her beloved dog, Rosie, grand-dog, Henry, and just a few plants.

Her village will receive visitors at Hayworth-Miller funeral home in Lewisville, NC from 12 to 2 on February 5, 2022, followed by a service and celebration of life at Old Nick’s Pub in Lewisville (by Julie’s specific request). In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Forsyth Humane Society or to the Julie Reece Taylor Scholarship at Forsyth Technical Community College. If you must send flowers, send gerber daisies. Julie loved a daisy.