Mary Janet Taylor

Mary Janet Taylor passed away peacefully surrounded by her family on March 19, 2025, at the age of 92. Mary was born in Spokane, Washington to Chris and Meta Brand on May 30, 1932. She grew up on the Brand family farm on Peone Prairie doing what farm kids do, helping with chores and riding the big draft horses that were used for farming. Mary graduated from Mead High School class of 1950 and then went to Kinman Business University. After Kinman, she worked for several accounting firms and Diamond Match Company doing payroll in the accounting department.

Mary's cousins, who lived in Spokane, took their neighborhood friend, Bob Taylor, along on visits to the Brand farm in the 1940s where they first met. Mary would let Bob ride behind her on the big draft horses. In 1959 while skiing on Mt Spokane, they met again. After dating for a year, they were married on December 3, 1960. They enjoyed 64 years of marriage.

Mary worked side-by-side with Bob in his construction business, R.E. Taylor, Inc., keeping books, doing payroll, paying bills, and day-to-day office work. They later started building and managing multiple rental properties on the north side of Spokane until retirement.

Mary was a member of Peone 4-H, Peone Grange, Peone Homemakers Club, Sewing club, Button Collectors club and avid pinnacle player and snow skier. Riding snowmobiles with the family and Yellowstone snowmobile trips were a highlight. Her real passion was working in her vegetable garden and flower beds. She always had a large garden and was happy to share the fruits of her labor with others. The flower beds around the house were always meticulously pruned and had an abundance of different flowers. She was very active in different activities with her two daughters from being a Campfire leader, volunteering for school functions, helping prep horses for horse shows and gaming events. She was so excited when grandkids started arriving. She spent many hours watching them grow and attending their various sporting events including soap box derby, basketball and wrestling. She was always a hands-on Mom and Grandma. When she had some down time, she enjoyed doing needle embroidery, scrap booking, traveling through Europe and most of the United States and spending time at their Deer Lake cabin with family.

Mary was preceded in death by her infant sister, Beverly, and both her parents, Chris and Meta Brand. She is survived by her husband Robert Taylor, daughters Janet (Dan) Eagle, Karen (Jim) Taigen; grandchildren Amanda (David) Fox, Timothy Taigen, Robert Eagle MD, Taylor Taigen and great grandson Adam Fox.

The family would like to thank everyone with Rockwood at Whitworth for their dedication and excellent care Mary received.

Mary's memorial service will be held on Saturday, May 10th at 2:00pm at Heritage Funeral Home located at 508 N Government Way in Spokane, WA.

If you are unable to attend her memorial service in person, please join us and watch her service online at the following link: https://view.oneroomstreaming.com/index.php?data=MTc0NjE0MjU3NjM2MDg3OCZvbmVyb29tLWFkbWluJmNvcHlfbGluaw==