Long Beach Press-Telegram (CA) - Thursday, January 20, 2000.
Joan Taylor's story certainly isn't an ordinary one. It's about a magic lady who stayed strong up until the end. Even in her final days, when she was in the hospital and her body was so frail she could hardly move, Taylor motioned to have a pencil placed in her hand so she could scrawl love notes to her husband. ''I love you, Jack,'' they would say. Then, in the gentlest way, he touched her hand and looked into her sparkling eyes, wondering what it would be like to live without her. He loved her beyond belief.
Every day, her health spiraled downward. But every day, Jack was with her. Sometimes, he'd sit by her bed from the wee hours of the morning to deep into the night, tears streaming down his face - remembering all those times they shared traveling the globe, seeing Joan as beautiful as the day they met. And when Joan, 65, died of ovarian cancer Saturday evening at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, after a four-month hospital stay, Jack called family friend Blanche Brewster Cannady: ''Our angel has gone,'' he said.
A longtime Long Beach elementary school principal, Joan was born in Burbank on July 21, 1934. She attended Burbank High School, where she graduated as class valedictorian in 1952. Soon after, she married her high school sweetheart, Barry Judson White, and gave birth to Debra Joan White, now a psychologist and professor in Sonoma County. Divorcing White about a year later, Joan went on to earn a degree in education at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a master's in education administration from Cal State Long Beach. She raised Debra practically alone. ''We had a very unique and special relationship,'' Debra says. ''We're so close in age, we always used to kid around that we'd grow old together. Now we can't do that anymore.''
In 1956, when Debra was 5, the two moved to Long Beach and Joan began a teaching career in the Long Beach Unified School District. She taught at Burcham Elementary for seven years, then was promoted to vice principal in 1963. Over the next eight years, Joan worked her way up the ranks to principal at Kettering Elementary, then served the same role at Cubberly, Barton, and Twain elementary schools. ''She had courage of her convictions -- and when she did anything in her job,'' Cannady says. ''She did what she felt was best for the children.'' Soon after landing her job as principal, she met Jack when she went to have her teeth cleaned by a dental colleague of his. They were married Sept. 25, 1976.
Joan loved children so much that after her retirement from the district, in June 1992, she joined the Assistance League of Long Beach, a volunteer group with several programs dedicated to young people. Five years later, in August 1998, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Strong and confident, Joan took her illness head on and went into surgery to have the cancer removed. Afterward, she went through chemotherapy. About a year later, doctors thought the cancer had gone into remission. And for a short while, at least, they were right. But around the end of September, after taking over as league president on May 1, Joan started experiencing pains in her abdomen and was admitted into the hospital.
Extremely sick, she tried to hang on, even having Jack bring her work from the Assistance League. But her ailment began to take over, and she couldn't keep up with the work she loved so much. The league was forced to appoint Joyce Krauss as its acting president. ''She was going to lick it, and that's all there was to it,'' says Joan's good friend and former secretary, Vera Knight. ''Frankly, I'm surprised she didn't.''
Now Knight recounts the wonderful memories she has of her friend - the string cheese Joan always used to bring her from district meetings, the flowers Joan once sent her just to show her appreciation, the way she loved her sheltie dogs, Miss Bonnie Bell and Mr. Beau Dacious, and the monthly ballroom dancing with their husbands at the Toppers Dance Club. Knight pauses for a moment and takes a deep breath. ''She could pretty much dance with any fella if he was a halfway good leader,'' she says. ''I think she was good at everything she did.''
Joan is survived by her husband, Dr. Jack Taylor; parents, Helen and Russell Aldrich, of Burbank; daughter, Dr. Debra White, of Santa Rosa; stepsons, Robert H. Taylor and family, of Highland; and John K. Taylor and family, of Escondido. Memorial services will be Jan. 28 at 1:30 p.m. at the Church of Our Fathers, Forest Lawn Memorial Park, 4471 Lincoln Ave., Cypress. In lieu of flowers, Joan's family requests that donations be sent to the Joan L. Taylor Scholarship Fund, Assistance League of Long Beach, 386 Roswell Ave., Long Beach, CA 90814.
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