Ethel Grace Taylor; Homemaker
Ethel Grace Taylor of Simi Valley, descendant of two prominent families that settled the Simi Valley area, died Thursday after a lengthy illness. She was 83.
A lifetime resident of Ventura County, Mrs. Taylor was a homemaker.
She was a caretaker for Strathearn Historical Park, with her husband, Leslie, for the first 10 years that the park was run by the Simi Valley Historical Society and Rancho Simi Recreation and Parks District, a museum official said.
Mrs. Taylor was born in Simi Valley in 1909. Her father, Henry Haigh, emigrated from England when the valley was still a frontier area, and remained to work as a rancher and a teamster.
Her maternal grandfather, Samuel Miller Woodson Easley, was instrumental in starting Simi Valley’s first school. A beekeeper, Easley was the first county clerk elected in Ventura County after the county separated from Santa Barbara County in 1872.
Services for Mrs. Taylor will be held at 11 a.m. Sunday at the Reardon Simi Valley Mortuary, 2636 Sycamore Drive. Visitation is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.
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