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- Necie Walker was a very exceptional person. She was quiet but forceful. She met Ernie while they were both in the service during World War II. She was an army [?] nurse. When she married a Protestant she was at odds with her Roman Catholic family. She left the service either at marriage or upon becoming pregnant. Howie was born in Mobile, Alabama, but when he was about a year old, she told her family that it was unfair that his other grandparents didn't know him. She proceeded to drive by herself from Mobile to Urbana, Ill. to meet her in-laws for the first time. At one point on the journey, she discovered that her small son who had been quietly playing in the back seat, had undressed himself and thrown the clothes out the window! When she arrived in Urbana, she formed a great and lasting bond with her husband's parents. I do not believe that she ever returned to Mobile to live. She did not visit her family very often nor did they visit her. It was a long time before she could bring herself to attend a Protestant church, but she finally did so when she was convinced that her children needed religion in their up-bringing. Eventually she joined the Methodist Chruch.
I remember this first visit and was thrilled, although pained, when Howie learned to stand up by pulling on my braids! I was also quite fascinated by Necie's speech. She did not have a strong southern accent, but tended to put "r's" in funny places.
Ernie and Necie lived in Philo, a small town near Urbana, in Bloomington, and then in Urbana itself. Necie was a housewife and mother, but as her boys got older, she became a gardener par excellance! She grew beautiful borders, and marvelous roses. She once remarked that her amarillys plants came from her father's stock, so he must have had horticultural interests too.
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Taylor Family Genealogy
- 2001