Frances Neff Taylor's Obituary
Frances Neff Taylor, 99 years old, of Highland, Utah passed away peacefully on December 21, 2022. She lived a long and rich life dedicated to service to others, especially her family. It is not lost on the family that she died on the date of the Winter Solstice, which is thought to be a time of ending and beginning, a powerful time...A time to forgive, to be forgiven and to make a fresh start. A time to awaken.
Frances was born on September 4, 1923, to Eugene and Louise Neff in Honolulu, Hawaii while her father served as mission president of the Hawaiian Islands. Her childhood was a happy one, where, because of her parent’s church service, she was able to have many unique experiences. One of her favorite times was when her parents served a mission in Palmyra, New York while her father opened the Bureau of Information at the Hill Cumorah. After Frances graduated from Marysville High School in California, she went on to study education at the University of Utah. She also did graduate studies at Columbia University in New York.
She taught English at Olympus Junior High for a short time. Later, she served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the French Mission which included France, Switzerland and Belgium at a time when sister missionaries weren’t that common. While in Paris, she met her husband, Charles, who was studying there.
They were married shortly after she returned from her mission in the LDS Salt Lake Temple by David O McKay. Frances and Charles went on to have three children, Serge Neff Taylor, Ardis Christensen Padgett and Karen Taylor Brooks.
Frances spent time doing the things she loved best, serving her family and those around her. She was an incredible grandmother who spent hours shuttling her grandchildren around while their parents worked and did all the things that made their grandchildren’s lives easier and richer. Frances had a talent for knowing what a person needed and then going about quietly getting it done.
One of Frances’ most avid passions was doing Family History. Frances had been given a book of orphans of the Civil War in Pennsylvania and she and Charles worked for many years finding the parents of these orphans and making sure the information was made available for family history purposes. Eventually, this book was published for others to do genealogy.
After Charles died, she served an LDS mission to Salt Lake City where she worked in the LDS Family History Center for 18 months. Up until a few days before she died, she was still indexing records, having indexed or reviewed over two million names.
Frances was predeceased by her husband Charles Taylor, her son Serge Taylor and her grand-daughter, Lily. She is survived by her brother Wayne Neff (Joan) and her children Ardis Christensen Padgett and Karen Taylor Brooks (David) and her daughter in law, Julie Taylor, her grandchildren Kristin Taylor (Kurt Raffield) Kevin Brooks, Peter Christensen (Celeste) Stephanie Isaacson (Isaac) and Courtney Vevea (Nathan) and grandchildren, Rachael Christensen, Alicia Christensen and Max Christensen, Chaz Taylor, Phoenix Taylor, NJ Vevea and Taylor Vevea and Charlie Isaacson, William Isaacson and Rylie Isaacson.
A memorial service will be held in Florida at the Odessa Stake Center on January 14th at 2:00 pm. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to your local Hospice who took such loving care of her during her last days. Condolences can be sent to the family at www.premierfuneral.com.
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