In loving memory of LC Taylor

2/2/1934 - 8/2/2017

Location: Trotwood, Ohio

Visits: 4,797

Service will be held Friday, August 18, 2017 at Zion Baptist Church (1684 Earlham Drive/Dayton, Oh 45406). Visitation will be at 10:00am and service to follow at 11:00am. Interment will be at Dayton National Cemetery.

L.C. Taylor (aka Frankie James Taylor), was born in Lowndes County Mississippi, Feb. 2, 1934. He was the 3rd child and only male child born to the marriage of William Watson Taylor and Ida Mary Mageline Summerville Taylor. He almost died of pneumonia as a child.

As a teenager, he was the youngest member of a traveling singing group. They sang at the local radio station and in churches. His spiritual voice brought the audience to tears whenever he sang. He also played baseball. Around that time, he met Effie Mae Franks when a cow got loose off the plantation in which her family lived and LC returned the cow. They married, and that union resulted in six viable children (twins stillborn). He joined the army and served 6 years with an honorable discharge.

After he moved his family to Dayton, Ohio, he joined Zion Baptist Church, serving over five decades until his health began to fail. He was a Trustee, on the Usher board and a very active member in the ‘Men’s of Zion’ ministry.

While raising his family, he was employed as a waiter at the Miami Valley Country Club, a garbage man and a tool and die polisher at the Continental Can Company. He retired from Lebanon Correctional Institute as a kitchen supervisor for which he earned many awards.
During the tumultuous civil rights era of the sixties, LC moved his family to the Caucasian city of Kettering, Ohio, the first of thirty-six black families.
LC was drawn to an add placed by Kettering businessman Sam Levin, “Welcome to Kettering, People of All Races!”

Mr. Levin was denied a request by the Kettering City Council to build a drive-in theater. After he placed the add, the drive-in was approved.

This move was not without its’ problems, especially when the family rented a home across the street from the former mayor. After the Civil Rights Act passed, LC and Effie purchased a home in Kettering. He was harassed on the job, the children were called derogatory names, picked on, got in fights, crosses were burned in the yard and the KKK visited.

His marriage to Effie ended after more than 25 years. He married Tommie Mance in 1980, and remained married for over 36 years until his death.

Survivors include: Wife Tommie Mance, six children from the previous union with Effie: Lionel, Bernard, Diane, Aaron, Winfred and Greg, Three stepchildren: Joyce, Karen and George. Three sisters: Charlean Hawkins of Orem Missouri, Ethel Mae Davis of Kansas City, Missouri, and Luebirter Washington, also of Kansas City. Multiple nieces, nephews, grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren. Two sisters preceded him in death: Harriet Porter and Pearl Taylor.

Professional services entrusted to Young Lusain Funeral Home.