Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current, January 21, 1998, Page 10, Image 10

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    •
■ *
*
-
a -
•
—
' j
■ <
”
¿ f.
~.
• » .
• 4 •<-
•MM *
JAN. 21, 1998
li j e Portiani» <db«mwr
Page B2
KO HO NT
Literacy P rogram Brings H ope to Y outh
Obituary
yii/fia/n QRenson C^ay/or
August 29, 1907 - January 13, 1998
William Benson Laylot. affectionately known as I )addv by hiseldesi
daughter. “Dad" by his youngest daughter; “Papa by his grandchildren,
"Uncle Willie" by his nieces and nephews; "Lil Man" by his cousins; and
"M r.I Byhislriends He was born August 29, 1907 in Okluskee County,
Oklahoma He went Io be with the Lord on January IL I99K al S;(K) P.M.
in Portland, Oregon al l.manuel Hospital He lived lor Ninety Blessed
Years
He was raised by his M other and L ather. L.iz/ie T hom pson and
1 I T aylor in C astle. O k lah o m a The fam ily m oved to Sand
C reek. O klahom a w here he atten d ed school and began to larm
cotto n His M other p assed aw ay w hen he was very young, so he
m oved to Ix l. O klahom a w ith his first C o usins. Pearl E thel and
Sadie.
As he approached adulthood, he met Ins close friend Sam Halloway
who convinced him to leave the Dust Bowl o f O klahom a and seek a
better life in El C entro, CA During this lime in his life he was
working as a plum ber and thought he could be more resourceful with
his hands in the kitchen so he learned how to cook He learned how
to cook many delicious meals and with the perfection of these
culinary delights he look Ins skills on the road to Portland. Oregon.
Once there lie- became a dishw asher for the Union Pacific Railroad.
He was quickly prom oted to the position o f C hief cook He worked
with the railroad lot over 40 years until Ins retirem ent During Ins
time with the railroad he traveled from Portland. < )R. to C hicago, II.
many times file on one m om entous trip he met a beautiful lady by
the name ol Mary D aniels It was love at first sight. Ihey were
married in 1952 in V ancouver. W ashington. Mary T aylor passed
away on D ecember 17. 1996 in Portland, Oregon. Follow ing W ill­
iams retirem ent he truly enjoyed woi king at the M emorial ( oliseum
as a Cashier and as a Parking Lot Attendant.
From this union. Tw o lovely D aughters w eie boin. Phyllis
H arris who lives in W alnut. CA . and D arlene T a y lo r w ho lives in
Portland. OR He was the G ran d fath er o f K heoshi T aylor- M ayes,
Sum iko T ayloi Hill and K eona T a y lo r - H ill. He was the U ncle
o f A lvin Tay lor. C harles M eins. H arvey B ooker. R ichard T a y ­
lor. Joann W ash in g to n . H elen M ason. G ladys B ooker. Iva Lee
H olly and Erma M ems He has tw o S ister in L aw s. L averne
Hamm and L ouise T ay lo r. T here are m any co u sin s and a host of
frien d s who will m ourn his passin g .
gram was working as well as it was.
Rev Johnson told me that the tech­
niques he used were something called
Study Technology, which had been
developed by I- Ron Hubbard
There are reasons students lose
interest in study, become bored, dis­
tracted or decide they hate school
Mr Hubbard has written extensively
about these problems Best of all. he
provided tools to resolve them, called
Study Technology.
After checking the World Literacy
Crusade and the Study Technology
proerams out. 1 decided to do what­
ever I could do to help I became a
vocal advocate for the World L it­
eracy ( i usade. and saw it spread-
first to church and community groups
throughout Los Angeles, and then to
other cit ics and even other countries.
We now have thirty groups operating
in the US and around the world and
we recently formed an alliance with
the NAACP. with the goal of having
a World Literacy Crusade program
in every city that has a NAACPchap-
I've been involved in helping the
community tor most ol my adult Ide
I've seen many heartfelt efforts to
achieve social justice It s always
seemed obvious to me that the prob­
lems of our inner cities trace back to
education - that is to say, failed edu­
cation. We could do more good with
effective literacy programs than with
all the police and jails that money can
buy.
From where I sit. failed education
means that the lives of friends oi
family could be destroyed and the
door shut on their opportunities Gur
inner city children are still often la­
beled as needing special education
or "diagnosed as victims of c arious
fictitious educational maladies that
spread likedisease through our com ­
munities. When our children believe
these labels, they are marked for life
with false and oppressive shackles
about their own abilities and poten­
tial and they become victims ol a new
form of slavery . We can't work too
hard to prevent this kind of tragedy
A few years ago, I found a pro-
ter.
Isaac Haves
T h e F lo w e r o f V is io n ! ( P a r t I)
B y S am P ierce
I’ve often recited a verse from the
Book of Proverbs that states; "With­
out a vision, the people perish.' It is
such a clear and precise statement. It
also carries a simple matter-of-fact
quality that seems to say; "If you
want to live seek a vision; seek out a
visionary. But if you want todie, then
do neither. Take it or leave it!" And
still today, these words of the writer
of old still beckon us. For all around
us we can see the impact of his wis­
dom.
so in another season of celebrat­
ing one of the world’s greatest vi­
sionaries, Dr. Martin Luther King,
J r , I thought I would reflect upon the
power of Vision! But rather than
focus on Dr. Kingperse, I’ve chosen
to write about vision and visionaries,
right here in our own city. For what
better way to honor a hero of vision
than honoring those who keep his
inspiration alive
Before beginning the task, how­
ever, of looking at local visionaries,
let’s first define what is meant when
Happy
Birthday
From Your Family
we say—Vision We have heard it
more in the nineties than any other
time in our history. So the question
is; is vision just another hip 90’s
word that's catchy, sexy and politi­
cally correct, or does it have pro­
found meaning that transcends our
time and space?
The 1997 W ebster's College
D ictio n ary
g iv es
sev eral
definition’s for vision, but the one
that equates nearest to our purpose
is defined as; the power of antici­
pating what might come to be , fore­
sight: entrepreneurial vision. But
let's go beyond Webster and put
vision in its proper context--which
is spiritual For at the very core of
vision is wisdom. And wisdom only
comes from God and is defined as
the righteous application of knowl­
edge.
In other words, wisdom is the
God given ability to wade through
piles and piles of knowledge and
decipher those precious nuggets of
truth. Therefore the other pillar of
vision is truth.
Happy Birthday
Mark Washington
From Your
Family & Friends
(Ltnrannnitg flltjurcl] of (®oi>
friendly Church"
‘P.HC 'Brown
•Pastor and Counselor
We Extend Our Hand To Everyone
Services Sunday 11 A.M. and 6 P.M.
Sunday School 9:45 A.M.
Community Church of God
202 N.E. Skidmore
281-5678 Church
^Fusiera/
You 're Gone But Not
Forgotten
You'll Always Be In Our
Hearts. We Miss You.
NTna
2756 NE Roditeli
Portland. OR 97212
503-251-4591
ô
This is pour commun/tp based funeral home supported
bppou.
We make the loss o f pour loved ones easier to bear.
Let us guide pou through our fadtitp and explain about
pre arrangements with pou.
C. Cox Tanner
Owner
Jerome Cox Tanner
Funeral Director