BIOGRAPHY - Gloria Patricia (Shannon) Taylor (Mother of Patricia LeMay "Patty" (Taylor) MacMillan by her daughter, Patricia LaMay (Taylor) MacMillan..
My Mother, Gloria Patricia Shannon, was born into a large farm family. Her parents, William Candler Shannon and Laura Cauthen Shannon, were good parents and they were a happy family. I don't know much about her childhood, only a few vague memories of conversations, I have asked her remaining siblings for information but unless they reply those years are lost to time. They were a farm family, in those days her father owned a large farm and during the good years employed farm hands to help with the work. Everyone worked though, so even as a child, she would have worked hard. I remember her talking about her Grandparents on the Cauthen side, they kept puzzles in their attic that they let the children borrow. I'm sure there were family get togethers, reunions, and picnics. Fireflies caught in empty jars and nighttime games of hide and seek. There would have been swimming at Lake Weir where they would have floated and talked and played, then they would have ignored their parents first five calls to get out and go. They would have made the 1 hour trip to Daytona driving their car onto the beach to spend a day playing in the waves. They would have gone fishing on the Oklawaha River or in Lake Weir. Her best friend was Gena Jones and she eventually married Gloria's youngest brother Paul Shannon. Gloria talked about how she and Gena would use baby oil and iodine to tan. When she was 15 her Mother died from skin cancer and was buried in Belleview Cemetery beside her parents, the Cauthens. This was a horrible time for everyone. Gloria talked about how her Dad just stood by the grave and refused to come home. Gloria's older brothers and sisters; William (Bill), Samuel, Dorthea, and Joyce had already married by this time and she had to take responsibility for the home, taking care of her Dad and younger brothers, and go to high school. It must have been a difficult time for her. It may have been the reason she made a bad marriage.
When she finished with high school she married Alon R. L. Taylor. Her profile photograph is Gloria in her engagement party dress. This dress was later used to make a blue chiffon basenet skirt for me. Alon was charming, handsome, musical, artistic - he was also a big talking dreamer. The first 10 years of their marriage weren't too bad. They both continued to mentor her younger brothers. She stayed close to her best friend and after she married Paul the friends had their first children within six months of each other. Paul and Gina had a daughter named Cynthia (Cindy) and Gloria had a daughter named Patricia (Patty). They moved into a house that her Dad had built in Belleview, Florida where she kept house, worked from time to time as a waitress, and within three years had another daughter named Sandra Lynn. During this time they also spent a lot of time with Alon's brother Hershel and his wife and kids. They bought a boat, which Alon named "Ole Yeller" and spent many great days on Lake Weir and local rivers. The met friends particularly Gloria's brother David and his first wife Vicky. There were lots of camping trips where they would go to places like Manatee Springs, swim in the springs, put the boat in the Swannee River. She taught her young daugthers to cook and sew. She taught us to make Christmas ornaments out of things like walnut shells. She took us to find thorn bush branches to make gumdrop trees. We went on long nature walks where she would tells us the names of wild flowers, as a farmer's daughter she had a great green thumb and had beautiful flower beds all through her life. We would go into Ocala with her sister Dorthea, who lived right down the street from us, and have pizza lunches at Loritos. One of my earliest memories of my Mom is from 3rd grade, we were having an Easter party and she brought in cupcakes with bunnies on top, I remember riding home in the car thinking how beautiful she looked in her yellow dress. She would take me to the local restaurant and we would have tea and share a danish, just me and her, I thought this was very special. Three years after Sandra she had Robin Dorthea. In between the birth of her daughters she had two late term miscarriages, both male. She was one of my girl scout leaders and went on camping trips with the scouts. I remember her as being a lovely and very special Mother.
My Father worked in a house trailer factory as a manager. There was an accident where two of the men he was in charge of were electrocuted. He tried to save them with mouth to mouth but they died. He had always had a weakness for alcohol and he was a mean drunk. He used this excuse to become a full-fledged alcoholic. He quit his job and sold his house and boat and moved his family to Booneville, Miss. This is where the real darkness started. He never kept a steady job again and he blamed his life on eveyone he could find, especially my Mother, it gave him an excuse to keep drinking. If he had been an adult a little later in history he would have probably have been diagnosed with bipolarism as he had horrible mood swings. Maybe he could have been helped. After about a year he moved his family to Barstow, Florida and their fourth and final child, Julia Ann, was born. A couple of years later the family moved back to Belleview.
Gloria fought skin cancer from her mid-30's until she died at 69 from melanoma. During these years she traveled to California to visit me (Patty/Pat), she traveled to Boston to visit Pat and meet her new Granddaughter Lorena Nicole MacMillan, she traveled to Virginia to visit Pat and meet her Granddaughter Kellie LaMay MacMillan. She always wanted to go to Ireland but never got there. She continued trying to be a good Mother to her children, she did all she could for them. She refused to divorce her abusive husband and at the end he nursed her unselfishly. She died in a hospice after which her ashes were sprinkled over the graves of her parents in Belleview Cemetery. It gives me great comfort to know that after crossing over she is happy, young, and with her family again. I loved my Mother, as did all her daughters. She is missed.