Eleanor H. Taylor, News American reporter and Glyndon activist, dies at 101

Eleanor H. Taylor, a former News American reporter and community activist, died Dec. 11 of heart failure in the same Glyndon home where she was born. She was 101.

“Eleanor was just a very accomplished women and just full of energy,” said Charlie Wells, a neighbor, who worked on many community projects with Mrs. Taylor. “She was always involved with something, brought people together, and was a very significant fixture in this town and everyone knew her. She was the Energizer Bunny and was always going and going.”

Eleanor Healy, daughter of Robert Day Healy, an accountant, and Ida Fairbank Healy, a homemaker, was born at 222 Central Ave. in Glyndon.

She attended a two-room Glyndon schoolhouse until Baltimore County schools were consolidated. She was a 1939 graduate of Franklin High School, where she was editor of the yearbook.

Mrs. Taylor attended the old Western Maryland College, now McDaniel College, in Westminster, where she majored in English and music. At her senior piano recital, she played selections from Bach, Beethoven and Shostakovich.

After earning her degree in 1943, she began her career on the city desk of the old News American.

“A trailblazer in a male-dominated newsroom, she covered breaking news and interviewed prominent figures in a variety of fields,” according to a biographical sketch from her family. “President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Duke of Windsor, and Cary Grant were just a few of the one-on-one interviews she conducted. Pictures of her with celebrities line the den of her home.”

While on the staff of the News American, she met and fell in love with George B. Taylor, a sportswriter, whom she married in 1946.

Old house enthusiasts, the couple purchased The Elms, a large Georgian home built in 1760 that at one time had been owned by the son of Francis Scott Key, writer of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Although the home suffered from severe neglect, the Taylors appreciated the value of its old bricks, woodwork and architectural details and with the guidance of an architect who had worked on the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg, had the house painstakingly dismantled and accurately reconstructed in 1958 on a piece of property in Glyndon. It still remains in the family and is occupied by one of their two daughters.

The preservation of her own home led Mrs. Taylor to actively campaign for the maintenance of the Victorian-era flavor found in Glyndon. She and others launched an awareness campaign that resulted in its designation in 1981 as Baltimore County’s first historic district.

After retiring from the News American in the 1970s, Mrs. Taylor continued working in journalism as a columnist for The Community Newspapers.

Mrs. Taylor served as president of Historic Glyndon Inc. and was a member of the Baltimore County Historic Trust.

During the late 1960s, she was a founding board member of The Ballet School Glyndon, and taught English at Franklin High School.

When Glyndon marked its 125th anniversary in 1996, she worked with CSX and the Maryland Midland Railroad to operate special trains from the old Western Maryland Railway Glyndon station to Westminster, as part of the celebration.

She also helped plan the 150th anniversary in 2021 and had been present for every opening of the Glyndon Pool since it started in 1931.

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She always enjoyed the town’s annual July 4th parade and continued the family tradition of having a party that day at the old house on Central Avenue.

“Eleanor was well-experienced and an advocate for traditional values and traditions and I always liked that,” said Clark L. “Lee” Wroe, a 4th-generation family friend and neighbor. “She was community-oriented, believed in the historic value of of our village. She was very strong on that and always just was a supporter of noble causes.”

Mrs. Taylor was a longtime member of Glyndon United Methodist Church where she taught Sunday school for 65 years, sang in its choir and wrote yearly Christmas programs.

She was an avid tennis player who enjoyed the sport on her family’s clay court. For nearly 60 years, she was a familiar figure in the stands at Franklin High School where she cheered her daughters and later grandchildren in their games of lacrosse, field hockey, soccer and golf tournaments.

Her husband of 48 years, who died in 1994, had been golfing editor at The Evening Sun for a decade until retiring in 1989.

A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Jan. 6 at Glyndon United Methodist Church at 4713 Butler Road in Glyndon.

Mrs. Taylor is survived by her two daughters, Nan Taylor Kaestner and Martha Taylor Clements, both of Glyndon; seven grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.