Gloria Taylor

January 12, 1942 - February 7, 2019

Gloria “Bobbie” Jean Taylor, age 77, of Oregon City, Oregon passed away on February 7th, 2019 in Gladstone Oregon. Viewing will be held at 11:00 A.M on Friday, February 22nd at Hillside Chapel on 7th St in Oregon City. This is an informal gathering time before the burial. Graveside Services will follow at 1:00 PM at Sunnyside Little Chapel of the Chimes Memorial Gardens at 11667 SE Stevens Rd in Happy Valley (just east of I-205 up behind the New Hope Church), with Pastor Mike Mutchler of Grand View Baptist Church officiating. Arrangements are made through Hillside Chapel of Oregon City. Bobbie was born in Portland, Oregon to Adam and Delilah M. Rode on January 12th, 1942. Her family moved frequently between the Central Oregon Coast and up and down the Willamette Valley as her father relocated them from time to time to find work to support his family. She attended several schools; beginning at Oceanlake Grade School, attending Bay City Grade School, graduating 8th grade from Rose Lodge Elementary School, attending Taft High School, and finishing school in 1958 at the age of 16 at Girls Polytechnic High school in Portland, Oregon. The name “Bobbie” came to her at a very young age when in her school days it apparently was popular for the girls to adopt a “boys” name. Gloria chose Bobbie and that name stuck with her through her entire life reserving the name Gloria only for legal or formal use. She married Rodney M. Taylor on October 15th 1960 in Portland, Oregon. They bought a little home with a big back yard on NE Fargo St in the Parkrose neighborhood of North East Portland. There they raised four children, three daughters and a son, Melinda Mae born in 1961, Michelle Rene born in 1962, Melissa Rae born 1967 and Gordon Adam born in 1969. The marriage ended in divorce on September 30th, 1975. In her adult years Bobbie has lived in Portland, Beaverton, and Hillsboro before finally settling in Oregon City to live near her children and grandchildren. There she remained for approximately 35 years. A hardworking person, Bobbie proudly worked at many jobs including Jantzen Knitting Mills of NE Portland, an assembler at Tektronix Inc. of Beaverton, and as a housekeeper at McLean Clinic in Oregon City where she earned awards for dedicated service including a very nice engraved clock from Tiffany & CO. In between those jobs she was a dedicated homemaker and a faithful caregiver to several homebound seniors. Bobbie loved many things and was a collector of many things. She loved to decorate and she had a nice cozy cottage style featuring her collections of birds, bunnies, flower prints, miniatures, garden objects and garden scenes. She loved to cook and to bake. She was a real down home cook with a flair for comfort foods. A meat and potatoes gal with a side of veggies, she often cooked old family favorites as well as recipes from her diner days at the Chopping Block in Oregon City. Some of her specialties were fried chicken, pork chops and pork roast. One of her all-time favorite treats was fried green tomatoes. One unusual thing she used to make years ago was macaroni in warm milk with butter. She said that’s what her family used to eat. She was a good baker and her kids loved her Texas brownies, apple cake, and especially her Sandies and fudge at Christmas time. She liked to clean and especially enjoyed ironing. She often said she found that chore to be relaxing. She was always proud to keep a very clean and pleasantly decorated home. She loved to garden for many years until her health prevented her to keep it up. She had a real green thumb and some of her most favorite flowers to grow were Clematis, tulips and daffodils, pansies, primrose, morning glory, zinnias and sunflowers. She was good at crafts too. She was particularly good at cross stich and making dolls using paper. She also enjoyed making photo albums and picture frames first covering them in bating, then quilting prints, lace and other embellishments. Many of examples of her creativity she gave as gifts and they will be treasured. She was particularly proud to display many, many photos of her family. She absolutely loved her photos of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, displaying them all over her apartment. She loved pictures from all across her extended family and appreciated those just as much as any other. She was thrilled whenever we sent her photos of ourselves and what we were doing, as well as pictures of nature and similar things of interests. As her health declined and she became homebound, these photos were her window to the world. It would be remiss not to say that she loved God and she loved Jesus. Although she was a Christian who grew up in the Church of the Nazarene, in her later years she did not belong to any particular denomination. However, she had a very strong and personal relationship with her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. She boldly spoke of God to others. She said she would talk to him daily. Although at times she questioned His plans, she was always thankful and grateful for what was provided for her. She’d say “I never ask God for what I want, but only for what I need. He’s always given me just what I need”. Perhaps this is what made her such a generous person. Though she never had much, if she had two nickels to rub together she would say she would keep the one and give the other to you. She very much looked forward to the Hope of Heaven. She hated to leave this world behind but she also looked forward to rejoining her loved ones waiting there for her. Over the past year she often said she was “ready”. We are happy for her reunion but our loved one will be sorrowfully missed. Bobbie is preceded in death by her father Adam Rode who died in October 1967 and her mother Delilah (Della) M. Rode who died in July 1993. She is also preceded by her most beloved cat, Dody. Bobby is survived by her four children Melinda (Mindy) Schmidt of Camas, Washington, Michelle Taylor of Portland, Oregon, Melissa Taylor of Oregon City, Oregon, and Gordon Taylor of Oregon City, Oregon. She is also survived by her three sisters and brother, Shirley Miller of Vanderhoof, BC, Janet Butler of Puyallup, WA, Helen (Jackie) Scholle of Idaho Falls, ID, and Danny L Rode Sr. of Chicago, IL. Her five grandchildren, Mae Lynna Kline of Missouri, Travis Schmidt of Washington, Colby Kirk of Oregon, Jennifer Schmidt of Washington, and Corey Manning of Oregon Her eleven great-grandchildren, Caleb, Adelaide, Hannah, Greta, William, Millicent, Henry and Rudolf Kline and Lily, Ezekiel, and Timothy Manning. Pallbearers will be Gordon Taylor, Corey Manning, Travis Schmidt, Raymond Taylor, David Bone of Hillside Chapel and Assistant. The Family of Bobbie Taylor wishes to extend our sincerest thanks to Jessie Casey, caregiver and loyal friend, the staff and nurses at Avamere Rehabilitation of Clackamas for taking care of her in her last stage of life. Thank you to David Bone of Hillside Chapel and Bret Kohanek of Sunnyside Little Chapel of the Chimes Memorial Gardens for help us through her final arrangements. Some Final Words about Bobbie She lived in Oregon nearly all of her life except for the short time during her forties when she lived in Sacramento, California but she missed her home and she came back. Particularly in her later years she spoke frequently of her childhood memories spent with her “mommy and daddy” and her sisters and brother growing up along the coast. She always wanted to write her memoirs and perhaps she may have even started on that. She liked to share stories of the hop fields in Newberg and describe to us the homes her family occupied in Portland. She actually loved the adventurous time her family spent living in a couple of old box tents and would delight in her memory of the upside down Christmas tree hung from inside the tent because there was no room to stand it on the floor. Her fondest memories were of growing up along the coast, spending happy summer days freely roaming along the sand bars surrounding the bay at Taft, south of Lincoln City. Playing with her family and friends while walking and running endlessly in the woods along the Salmon River between Rose Lodge and Otis. She had a precious someone tucked deep in her heart. She fondly remembered him there. Of all the places she has lived, her heart would always take her back to Rose Lodge. Bobbie liked to think of herself as a thinker, a good listener, intuitive person and a bit of an old soul. She described herself often as a loner but she liked to talk and to get to know people. Honesty was a very important trait to her. She was an honest person and she hated dishonesty. She was a generous person who would give you the shirt off her back. She would feed you if you needed feeding. She loved to hug people and her hugs were extra nice. She kept her commitments and she was always on time. You could not hide anything from her because she would keep asking questions and she could work on a matter over and over again in her mind until she had it finally figured out and then she would triumphantly tell you what it is that you are hiding from her. You could just imagine the wheels turning in her mind by the expression and body language she exhibited especially when she was about to start up a good argument. But she would say, she does not argue, it’s a “debate”. Bobbie loved her family so very much. She loved all of her children and grandchildren and her greatgrandchildren. She worried and fussed over all of us constantly and then she would pray. And she would call for her sisters and brother and the rest of her family to pray. And she prayed for all of them in return. She very often spoke of many fun and happy memories shared with her nieces and nephews and the precious times she spent visiting them. She never forgot the time she spent with her sister Jackie and her kids in New Mexico, the fun times with the family and the beauty of the sky and the landscapes. She always wanted to go back there. Or the time she spent with her sister Shirley and family in British Columbia. She enjoyed a glimpse of the farm life they lived there and all those stars. There she acquired her love of her most favorite singer, Canadian Country and Folk artist Ian Tyson. Living closer in proximity, she traveled most often to spend time with Jan and Eldon’s family in Washington, especially during the time that her mom, Della lived with them. She genuinely loved her nieces and nephews and enjoyed watching them grow and prosper and start families of their own. And some of those nieces and nephews sent her cards and letters and mementos throughout the years and she kept those and treasured them too. She never got round to visiting her brother Danny in the various states he lived in but she did enjoy when he would come to visit her whenever he would come back home to visit. With her extended family being flung far and wide, with each branch of the tree settling in a different state or even country, she loved to receive the news from her entire family. She was always eager for the stories and the pictures from every family gathering. She spend many hours poring over pictures from all of her family. Bobbie was a loving mother, daughter, sister, friend to all. She was dearly loved and she loved us dearly. She will be greatly missed but never forgotten.