January 11, 1911 – October 4, 2006
Bettie Mae Brown was born January 11, 1911 in Coffeeville, Mississippi Yalobusha County to the union of Walter Brown and Mammie Wheelis Brown. She was the oldest of 10 children. Her parents were sharecroppers, and she grew up on the Newberger Plantation. She was educated in Tie Plant, Missi., finishing the eighth grade. She always said it if was in a book, I could learn it.
Her family moved from Coffeeville to Elliott, Missi., where she met and married her husband John Wesley Taylor. She and her husband owned 52 acres of land where they were farmers while living in Mississippi. She and her husband had 10 children.
Bettie had professed her faith in Christ at an early age and joined the Galilee Baptist Church when coming to St. Louis in 1939.
Bettie and her husband opened a grocery store in the Mill Creek area of St. Louis. In 1963 with the passing of her husband, she became the CEO and Owner of Taylor Sausage Company, known by its slogan “Hog enough to want your business, man enough to treat you right.” She was featured in the book “Lift Every Voice and Sing: St. Louis African Americans in the Twentieth Century.”
She later opened another business, the New Styles Beauty Salon, where she only retired at the young age of 95.
Bettie Mae had a passion for her community helping children and her church as a WMU member. She was a 40-year member of the Eastern Star, Adah Star Chapter and served as A Past Worthy Matron.
On Wednesday October 4, 2006 she finally decided to rest and have eternal peace after a brief illness. Her husband John Wesley Taylor, five daughters (Ernestine, Wilma Lois, Evelyn, Peggy Ann and Lorene) and two sons, Lead and Eugene Taylor, preceded her in death.
Cherishing her memory are sons John Wesley Taylor Jr. (Mary Ann) and Walter Taylor (Debra), daughter LaVern Thornton, daughter-in-law Dorothy Taylor, two sisters Earon Floore, Mary Ella Jones, one brother Tom Henry Brown, all in Phoenix, Ariz.; and a host of grandchildren, great grandchildren, great-great grandchildren, nieces, nephews, cousins and friends.