Spotlight on Kathy Taylor

By Gary Lee Stuber

If you have done business in the town of Clay in the last 50 years, you probably know Kathy. But do you really know Kathy? She was born Kathy Phillips to Helen Reed Hubbard and Jessie James Phillips in 1957.  She said, like the other Jessie James who was famous for his hit and run activities in the Wild West, her father was never more than a donor who only gave her a last name, as he was never a part of her life. Her single mother lived in Bickmore and Kathy was raised there with her four sisters and three brothers. 

She was the “middle child” as she describes it. “Fifth one down or third one up. I was good to be the middle child.  But I wasn’t good.”  She has for the most part been a Bickmore native all her life.  

When she was 12 years old she worked for Morgan Fitzwaters who owned and operated a little grocery store just down the road from where Allen Ramsey’s Dairy Bar and Laundromat are located now. 

“I would stop there on the way home from school and he asked me if I would like to work.”  Yes, that is always the right answer. “I stocked shelves there at that little grocery store along the highway.”  She attended Bickmore Grade School all eight years. “I started my freshman year up at what is now Clay Middle School but where the high school burnt I finished my freshman year at the new Clay County High School when it opened its doors that same year.” The high school burnt in January 1969.

“Through my high school years I was able to work on the Summer Youth Program set up for low income people.  I worked on that every year I could.  Then I worked for B.A. and Coleen House at their Superette right out of high school.  I’ve been in Bickmore all my life.  I never did move away.  Just across the road.” She laughs as she says that. “I went to other places. I saved up my money to go, but I never worked anywhere else outside of Clay County.  I would stay elsewhere as long as a month, run out of money and come home and get a job.”

Kathy started work at the old Dollar Store in Clay in 1978 located at that time in the Lyons Building. She had a son in 1979 and began her brief years as a single working mother.  Her son, Heath Branden Taylor, now works at Dupont.  Married to Lisa Lane Taylor, Heath has three children, Allison Wriston, 28; Madison Taylor, 18; and Canaan Taylor, 6. Kathy would have had a third granddaughter, Maci Taylor, who would have been 10 this year, but died shortly after birth.  

In 1984, Kathy married David Taylor, and they remodeled a Bickmore home. After 30 years together, David passed on June 4, 2014. 

“All my life I have just wanted to help people.  I believe in my heart that’s what I am called to do. And so I just wanted to help our little community in the town of Clay. I started the flower shop and a bed and breakfast.” Then her eyebrows furrow, and she says, “After I fell and broke both knees I could no longer use the steps so I continued the flower shop, but I had to give up the bed and breakfast.”  Her mood brightens when she adds, “I had that flower shop ten years.  I loved it, I enjoyed it.”

Here is where the closeness of the family comes in.  “But then my daughter-in-law Lisa came to me and we had another opportunity. And I took it.” She points to the back of the big used furniture store she operates as a side line, to the offices beyond.  It is the offices of Advantage Home Health Care that she and Lisa operate jointly. In a county like Clay where few real good paying jobs exist, youthful, energetic high school graduates are pretty much forced to move to bigger cities inside West Virginia or outside of it to find work.  As a result there exists a disproportionate number of elderly and aging in the county that need home health care.  

While there are other agencies, most operating from outside the county, Lisa and Kathy found a way to help.  Their business helps 50 to 60 clients.  And since the ratio requires nearly one on one daily help, that means they keep that many hired as well.  These programs are monitored and supported by the State of West Virginia and requires licenses, background checks, drug testing, training and ongoing supervision. 

Kathy expresses one regret, she holds up an Iphone.  “I wish these things were banned from work.  It is the one thing that can sideline good care.” The schools in this state have the same regret.

Although the Advantage office has its own outside entrance across from the Clay County Bank, the entire front of the same floor is a huge space that fronts main street. “The furniture store came six years later.  We looked around and said, what can we do with all this space?  What inspired me to do this was the flood of 2016.  After the flood many people had a need for furniture and no where to find it. People who knew me from the flower shop would come to me and I would go out and buy it and the next thing you know we had a business. And it’s a good business.”  

Kathy has had some setbacks along the way.  She injured her back a few years ago and had a knee replacement, and she is of the age to draw her social security, but she just won’t give up on these two businesses that help people.

And she does help.  She gathers donated food all month, even diapers, and gives them away to the needy out of her shop.  I have seen her modify prices of her furniture for those she knows need it but can’t afford it.  “Remember when those apartments burnt up there near the church?  There were like six of them.  We supplied all of them.” 

And perpetually, she cooks meals for the homeless. “The first ten days or so of the month, we know that most of these people have money from some sources, after that they are looking around for meals. I am happier doing this than flowers.  We have had some clients, seriously, that I have gone out and mowed their yards.  Not as many since I hurt my back, but I can still do it. But I love helping people. We have a couple in this town, they wouldn’t want me to name them, but every month they come in and give me $200 with no restrictions, and I buy food with it to feed the homeless.  We will make two big pots of chili and they can eat on that for two days. The cheapest thing we have made here is pasta, but whatever it is we make here, and we have made it all, they absolutely are not picky and will eat it all up. It’s like watching people eat their last meal.  It may be the first meal they have had in a long while.”

She remembers what her mother told her: “Small towns have small ways, but in them anybody can make a difference.”  Kathy is indeed making a difference.  She has a strong Christian set of values and as a member of Middle Creek Baptist Church does everything she can to help those that she can. “How hard is it?” She asks, “To look at some one and smile?  How hard is that? We shouldn’t be judgmental about anybody.  I mean we can.  The bible says we are to know the tree by its fruit. But I think if we just concentrated on fixing ourselves, we’d have our hands full.” That is biblical too. Christ says we should take the mote, or beam, out of our own eye before we try to fix our brother. 

“In a small town like Clay, we know them, those that are homeless, or struggling with drugs, we know who needs our help.” The thought harkens back to her mother’s quote. “And,” she says excitedly, “I’ve had the privilege of taking six people to rehab.  All of them stayed but one. Good does come out, being good to people. I like to give that to the Lord; He did it.  We reach out, but He reaches in. We have all been there one time or another, needing someone else’s help.”  

That is why despite her own aliments and family responsibilities she wants to keep working.  “There is a great need in this county, even as small as it is, but you can’t help if you are sitting at home.”

Everyone that knows Kathy, certainly knows that she has had a speech impediment all her life and many just never ask if she has struggled with it.  “No. It doesn’t bother me.  It’s a part of me.  It’s a gift: God gave it to me.  My natural father was a drunk, so I call it the ‘drunk syndrome talk.’ Because I was the only one in the family that got it.”  She doesn’t need to be self conscious, because no one has a problem understanding her.  And her exuberance as well as her speech makes her distinctive and may actually be part of the reason she shows so much kindness to others.

“Life ain’t about us,” she declares, “Once we get saved, it is not about us no more. I had a brother that just got saved Monday. He was 72.  I got saved in 1988 and all my other siblings are saved and in 1988 we pleaded with him, begged him.  And Monday he was gloriously saved.  Saved at last. As far as I know my entire family is saved, even by little grandson Canaan went to the alter the other night.” 

Kathy is living her best life, since she has reached that goal she wanted back in high school to help as many people as she could. 

If you have aging parents or grandparent who need home health services or are someone who wants to try a career as a home health provider, call Advantage Home Health Care at 304-587-9992.  Or you might want to browse Kate’s Furnishings for everything from toys, glassware, primitives, furniture, and appliances. They are open daily from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday. They aren’t hard to find, next to the bank, across the street.  And while you are buying maybe you could even slip her a few extra dollars to help make meals for the homeless.  Then you too can be an ‘anyone’ in a small town.