Eston Taylor

Eston Taylor, 89, died Wednesday at William Dunlap Hospice Center in Raleigh. Funeral services will be held at 1:00 pm Tuesday at Mid-Way Baptist Church in Raleigh. Interment will follow at Greenlawn Memorial Gardens, Fuquay Varina, NC. The family will receive friends at the church from 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM on Tuesday, prior to the service. Eston Taylor was born March 28, 1930 in Nashville, Georgia to Ethridge and Nancy Taylor. He was the 3rd of 12 children and they eventually moved to Plant City, Florida. On December 29, 1950 Eston enlisted in the United States Air Force, in Tampa. He was stationed in Berlin Germany and he was a fire fighter. He received two medals - Occupation Medal – Germany, and National Defense Service Medal. After serving in the Air Force, Eston began working in the Airline and Air Freight industry. He was the National Chairman for Airline Employees Association from 1969-1975. One of Mr. Taylor’s greatest joys was spending time with his wife Sue, and four children, Dorraine, Michelle, Eston Jr. and Matthew. He loved to take them on trips, teach them the value of hard work, go fishing, work in his plant nursery, and just spend time together. He took his oldest daughter Dorraine to Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Guatemala, and many other weekend getaways while he was an airline employee. He took his wife, Michelle, Eston, and Matt to Nashville Tennessee, and to see the Grand Ole Opry, San Francisco, New Orleans, Nashville, Phoenix AZ, the Grand Canyon, and to Key West. He also took them deep sea fishing on a charter boat and on many camping trips to Moss Park. Mr. Taylor always made sure that his family knew that their faith in God, and church was very important. He and his wife took the kids to church every time the doors were opened, and taught them to not just attend, but to be involved serving and helping others. One of Mr. Taylor’s greatest passions was Bible Club, a program ran on Saturdays for neighborhood kids that included games, snacks and a Bible story! He and his wife Sue would host Bible Club on their property in Orlando, Florida. Mr. Taylor cooked hot dogs and prepared snacks for all the kids and Sue would teach the Bible Stories. Over the years, hundreds of children came to know the love of Christ through this wonderful outreach! Eston was an entrepreneur at heart and always wanted to own his own business. In 1979 he started a packing and shipping company, opening four stores in the Orlando, Plant City, and Tampa. He also loved plants, and ran a plant nursery for years with acres of plants for sale. Mr. Taylor has been retired for the last 20 years and lived in Raleigh with his wife Suesan. They were faithful members of Mid-Way Baptist Church. Surviving are his beloved wife, Suesan Wright Taylor; daughters, Dorraine Koepke (Jon) of Bradenton, FL; and Michelle Staubs (Grant) of Raleigh; sons, Eston Taylor, Jr. (Jean) of Moorhead, MN and Matthew Taylor (Jessica) of Garner; sister, Vera Mae Smith of Plant City, FL; brother, Robert Taylor of Oklahoma; thirteen grandchildren: Arelan Lavoie of Seattle, WA (Morgan); Nathan Koepke, Isaac Staubs, Hannah Staubs, Daniel Staubs, Abigail Staubs, Natalie Taylor, Anna Taylor, Balian Taylor, Madelynn Taylor, Rhonda Taylor, Simon Taylor, and Zachary Taylor.