Nancy and Elinore Taylor
Nancy and Elinore Taylor have no patience for ignorance, discrimination or hypocrisy. These passionate, giving sisters are partners in doctrine and life. In Huntington, they live together in an aging log cabin where they were raised. Elinore (right) playfully dubs her older sister "the good one," though both have zealous spirits.
Nancy, who's 14 years older, has served the League of Women Voters with quiet leadership throughout the years. During World War II, she joined the army after college. "I thought the educated women ought to support it and not just leave it up to the poor people to do it," she says. "It was important for women to step forward and be treated as equals."
Nancy, a career librarian, volunteers in the Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church library and is involved with every environmental activist group, peace movement and civil rights group imaginable. The loss of her sight has not deterred Nancy's reading or activities in the least. At 91, she is more involved than most. Elinore is equally committed to the community, peace, the environment, politics and civil rights. "The three things that I love are politics, religion and theatre. It's [theatre] more than entertainment to me-it's a religious experience. I really think it's an important way to communicate," she says. "It seems like nowadays politics is dirty, so people leave it to others. You just get the same people that rotate. People seem to not feel that responsibility."
A social worker and later English professor at Marshall University, Elinore has written two locally produced plays: "They'll Cut Off Your Project" (an adaptation of Huey Perry's book) and "Appalachian Spring Revisited" (about Charlotte Pritt's unsuccessful run for governor).
The Taylor sisters have written letters on an array of social issues and marched in dozens of protests. When the Iraq war erupted, they picketed outside the Huntington Federal Building downtown-joining forces with local youth. After the last presidential election, they purchased Jeremiah, a big barking distraction to ease their disappointment.
Nancy was a second mother to Elinore. Nancy read to her as a child and put her through the first year of college. Neither fell in love nor married. Both are devoted churchwomen. Traveling down the gravel drive, their "home place" fades from view, but their message remains: "Do something."
