By DEBBIE CARLSON

Howard Taylor only planned to write a book about his mother's life achievements.

   "It started as a story of ray I mom's life," Taylor said of the book he wanted to do on Louise Lynch Taylor. "She ran for county office in the '60s and ran for mayor in 1973,"

   He mostly wanted to write about her years as the Coles County Reporter, particularly at WLBH radio station. But then she was doing research on the radio station, he found himself reading through clips of the Coles County Daily Times and Charleston Courier, before the two papers merged. So he began to add information about them too.

  "It just grew," he said. "I didn't want to leave out the other news media. I did a little about the Journal Gazette and Oakland."

  The book on his mother's life became "Coles County News, The Gatherers and the Reporting." In it, he has chapters on Ray Livesay, owner of WLBH; Ben Weir, publisher of the Courier; and his mother's cousins, former Coles County Coroner Dick Lynch and Rep. Lee Lynch, who was the original Coles County Reporter, and later served in the Illinois General Assembly.

   He printed the book himself in Champaign at a small printer so he could get his labor of love in book form. His one-inch thick volume is filled with copies of news articles, pictures and stories he paraphrased, told to him by his mother.

   There are stories of the battle between Charleston and Mattoon to be selected as the site for Eastern Illinois University, the beginnings of the university, stories of famous deaths and events of local interest through the years.

   Much space is devoted to his mom's colorful history — as a radio news reporter and columnist. She was active in the community, broadcasting live from the Coles County Fair, serving as the emcee at the local Halloween parade, and organizing fund-raisers for the Lions Club, the Red Cross, and to build the new Charleston Memorial Hospital on 18th

    In 1964 when she retired from radio, Mrs. Taylor opened a teen center called the Nowhere. Recollections from Taylor indicate that for three years, area teens had a place to hangout and dance to the music of local bands,

    In 1968, after moving the Nowhere to a different location, the teen center closed deeply in debt, Taylor writes,including the Rhythm's Children which included the Taylor's other son, Red, as the bass player. and his mom went to work at the Charleston Hospital to pay the bills. He said in the book, "Many teens still tell me that the Nowhere helped them survive their teen years, and kept them from getting into trouble."

 At age 49, Mrs. Taylor decided to run for mayor in 1973 against Robert Hickman and Leonard Durham. Her motto was “I love Charleston," and although she had many supporters, Hickman won the election.

    The book took the Cowden-Herrick school librarian about a year to compile. While it was a lot of work to do, he enjoyed every minute of it.
"I loved finding old stories," he said. "There are some really neat old stories. It was fun seeing how much I could remember."

    When he first printed the book, obviously his family was proud. But then he found another fan in Ray Livesay. 1 showed him the book and he got all excited," Taylor said.  "He went and got a studio amplifier that was built in the 1940s, that my mother and Lee Lynch used in the Charleston WLBH studio.  I have that as a treasured item.  We have a picture of it in  the book."

   The most difficult part of doing the book, Taylor said, wasn't the researching or the compiling. Actually it was the production. "The hardest part was getting the pictures to reproduce well," he said with a grin.
Taylor wrote of his mother in the conclusion, "Louise perhaps was a women's libber for the 1950s, because she worked and did what men did. She just wanted to earn a little extra money and have a little fun in life.  She did!"
His next project will be on the Charleston Fire Department.  He plans to do a history on the department from its beginning to current state.

    My dad (former fire chief Melvin Taylor) left me a box of envelopes and each one had a year by year account of what happened until 1984, when he died,: Taylor said.

A lot of water has rushed over the bridge for me since I wrote, published and sold this first book of mine.  It was quite a project when I was busy working as school librarian and art teacher at Cowden-Herrick Schools.  These were not necessarily my happiest years (school-wise).  I had been taken out of the routine of working with younger children and placed in a difficult Jr. High art position.  I survived, wrote a book, conducted the first Annual Eisenhower Math/Science Institute at my school, moved from Herrick to Windsor, Illinois.
All that occurred in the year of 1994.  

I discovered that I was a very good grant writer, so I started writing the federal and state grants for my school.  I would end up winning a multitude of small and very large competitive grants.  The school ended up with 150 or more new computers, servers, wiring in three buildings, Internet wireless system, and the list was large in those years.  I had to personally supervise the purchase of nearly $400,000 worth of things and services.

I have retired since May, 2003, and now live in surburban Atlanta, GA.  I don't do any of the things I did in Illinois.  I am an elementary Para-Pro, living the life of being semi-retired.

I'm glad I wrote the two books about my parents' position and career in life. They are both decease now (Melvin Taylor, 1990;  Louise Taylor, 2002).  The books reveal much of their personalities and accomplishments.  These webpages help to reveal some of that to you.

I hope to become an elementary art teacher next year, paint some new paintings again, write a children's book concerning fire history, and add to my web site.

The old Lynch philosophy is "enjoy life and have fun."  Mine has always been "don't do it unless it is fun."  I had to stretch that a little in my teaching career, but now have the choice to not do it.

Thanks for Read'n.

Howard Taylor