Susan Taylor Block, chronicler of the history of the lower Cape Fear, dies at 71
Susan Taylor Block, who authored nearly 20 volumes on the history of Southeastern North Carolina, died Oct. 29 while under hospice care in Wilmington. She was 71.
Block was probably best known for a trilogy of photo-heavy books about Wilmington-area history for Charleston, South Carolina's Arcadia Publishing: "Along the Cape Fear" (1998), described as a "miscellany" of local history; "Cape Fear Lost" (1999), which featured architecture and buildings that had been demolished; and "Cape Fear Beaches" (2000), which focused on the area's coastal communities.
She also provided the text for the sprawling coffee table book and photo anthology "Wilmington Through the Lens of Louis T. Moore" (2001), and in 2007 published "Wilmington Then and Now," which juxtaposed historic photos with contemporary shots in the same locations.
"She was highly inquisitive. She genuinely loved going down rabbit holes for historical tidbits and especially for photographs," said Catherine Gerdes, one of Block's daughters. "She would spend her free time researching history or just writing."
Susan Taylor Block was born Sept. 1, 1951, in Wilmington and was the daughter of Betty Hill and Joseph Wright Taylor Jr. She graduated from John T. Hoggard High School in 1969 and from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1973.
Block started writing poetry early in her career, and saw her work run in the Saturday Evening Post, Ladies’ Home Journal, Reader’s Digest and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications. In 2005, she published the book "Sit Right Here By Me: Light Verse by Susan Taylor Block," one of several poetry collections.
"She was very poetic by nature. She spoke in poetry. Her life was really poetic," Gerdes said. "She would always write down these little scribblings that she would text, or usually email" to her and her sister, light verses that were often humorous, spiritual or both.
"If I had to choose a favorite category of Mom's writing, it would be her poetry," she added. "When we were infants, she wrote poems for both of us."
A poem titled "Easter Morning" from Block's collection "Poems from the Second Pew" reads, "A trap door was opened,/ By footmen above./ The bodies we're wearing/ Are nothing but gloves."
A deeply spiritual and religious person who attended St. James Episcopal Parish in Wilmington, Block was "really fascinated by and really drawn to the work of (Wilmington artist) Minnie Evans," Gerdes said. "She loved the spiritual nature of her work."
Working with Evans' descendants, Block wrote the epitaph for the artist's gravestone: "Minnie Evans, whose paintings speak that for which there are no words."
Evans, of course, is tied to Wilmington's Airlie Gardens, where she drew and painted for years while working in the gatehouse by the Gardens' entrance.
Block was also connected to Airlie, and served as the Gardens' official historian, writing a timeline that's located in the educational building there. She wrote the book "Airlie: The Garden of Wilmington" (2001) and wrote the screenplay for “Beneath the Airlie Oak,” a documentary for which she served as associate producer.
Block was also an associate producer for “Lumina,” about the fabled Wrightsville Beach dance hall, that aired statewide on UNC-TV public television in 1999. She received numerous awards from Wilmington's Lower Cape Fear Historical Society, and for a time provided historical commentaries for Wilmington public radio station WHQR.
Block's husband, Frederick Block, died in 2007. She is survived by Gerdes and by another daughter, Taylor Cromartie, and by her brother, Joseph W. Taylor III.
A funeral will be held 1 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4, at St. James Episcopal Parish in Wilmington. A reception in St. James’ great hall will follow. The family asks that, in lieu of flowers, any donations may be made to Lower Cape Fear LifeCare or to the Brigade Boys and Girls Club.
Contact John Staton at 910-343-2343 or John.Staton@StarNewsOnline.com.
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Wilmington writer and historian Susan Taylor Block dies at age 71
