Viola Taylor; Longtime Educator

Viola Taylor, whose long career in public and private education included founding the Edgewater Preschool and Kindergarten in Seal Beach and the Edgewood Private School in Santa Ana, has died.

Taylor died Tuesday in Madison, Wis., two weeks after her 92nd birthday.

Taylor was born in Madera, Calif., and graduated from Miss Fullmer’s School for Girls in Los Angeles, where she trained to be a kindergarten teacher. Her first teaching position was with the Paramount Unified School District, where she taught until her 1932 marriage to Long Beach recreation director L.L. “Dick” Taylor.

In 1950, Taylor founded Edgewater Preschool and Kindergarten in Seal Beach. After her divorce in 1954, she taught kindergarten in the Garden Grove Unified School District. In 1960, she founded what would later be called Edgewood Private School in Santa Ana.

Originally known as Edgewood Preschool and Kindergarten, the school expanded after Taylor’s twin granddaughters, Shannon and Shawn Christian, began attending. Once they completed kindergarten, Shannon Christian recalled, a new grade was added to the school every year until they completed eighth grade.

In 1970, Taylor sold the school, which is now in Tustin and called Edgewood Pre-Primary Academy.

“She was a very caring person and very dedicated to her family and the children in her school,” said Jackie McKeever, the academy’s assistant director who knew Taylor in the 1970s.

After selling the school, Taylor returned to teaching kindergarten at John Marshall Elementary School in Garden Grove until her retirement in 1974.

Taylor is survived by her daughter, Barbara Taylor Christian of Tallahassee, Fla.; and three grandchildren, Shawn Taylor of Chicago, Shannon Christian of Tallahassee, Fla., and Linda Christian of Morongo Valley, Calif.

A graveside service will start at 10 a.m. Monday at Arbor Vitae Cemetery, 1301 Roberts Ave., Madera.