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Frances
Juanita DeLee Taylor, 73, a retired major in the Air Force, District
real estate agent and volunteer, died of complications from
Parkinson's disease Dec. 6 at the Washington Home and Hospice, where
she lived.
Maj. Taylor was born in Lumberton, N.C., and grew up in Philadelphia
and Lake City, S.C. She graduated from Claflin University in
Orangeburg, S.C., and enlisted in the Air Force in 1954. She was a
flight stewardess and drill instructor as an enlistee and then rose
to the officer rank. She served in Spain, Vietnam and Hawaii. At
Bolling Air Force Base, she was base traffic manager before becoming
a member of the inspector general's team that inspected bases in
Asia and the Pacific.
She retired from the military in 1974, with a Bronze Star among her
awards.
Maj. Taylor became a real estate agent, working for a now-closed
agency on Capitol Hill. She was a member of the Washington
Association of Realtors and, in 1991, was appointed to a four-year
term on the D.C. Board of Real Property Assessment and Appeals.
While working as a real estate agent, she graduated from the
Computer Learning Center and the International Institute of Interior
Design.
As a volunteer, she edited two editions of the National Alliance of
Business's Directory of Historically Black Colleges. Her work in
leading the NAB-sponsored Youth Motivation Task Force resulted in a
1983 presidential citation from President Ronald Reagan.
She volunteered at the Smithsonian Institution to establish a
permanent display of the uniforms of women in the U.S. Air Force.
She was a driver for Meals on Wheels, a life member of Africare and
a member of the TransAfrica Forum and National Council of Negro
Women.
Maj. Taylor served on the board of trustees of the Capitol Hill
United Methodist Church and the boards of the United Planning
Organization and Friendship House, where she was chairman of its
annual fundraiser.
In 1990, she was inducted into the National Black College Hall of
Fame for community service.
Survivors include her husband of 38 years, Roswell A. Taylor Jr. of
Washington; a stepson, Kevin Taylor Sr. of Dover, Del.; a brother;
two sisters; and four grandchildren.
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