Do you know who Joe Gray Taylor was? No. I’m right there with you. When I searched for topics for today’s post, his name came up. He was a Louisiana historian and a professor at McNeese State University in Lake Charles. Hope you enjoy this brief look into his life.
He was born on Valentine’s Day in 1920 in Tipton County. This is north of Memphis. His parents were Bassil Gray Taylor and Lennie Fee Shinault. His father supported the family through farming and carpentry work. He went to public schools and then onto Memphis State College, known now as Memphis State University. After graduating from college, he taught in a one-room school from 1939 to 1941.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan, Joe joined the Army Air Corps, the predecessor to the US Air Force. He was assigned to the Twelfth Bomb Group for the China-Burma theater as a bombardier-navigator. Joe completed seventy missions. He reached the rank of First Lieutenant and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal, and three battle stars. After the war, he married Helen Friday.
He returned to his west Tennessee roots and obtained a Bachelor’s and a Masters of Arts from Memphis State. In 1951 he graduated from LSU in Baton Rouge with a Ph.D. in history. He moved around between colleges and ended up at McNeese State in 1963. He stayed there until he died on December 8, 1987.
Among his works are five monographs and four essays on Air Force history. The rest of his works focused on Louisiana and the South. Here’s a short bibliography:
- Negro Slavery in Louisiana (1963)
- Louisiana Reconstructed, 1863-1877 (1974)
- Eating, Drinking, and Visiting the South (1982)
- Louisiana: The Pelican State – with Edwin Adams Davis and Raleigh A. Suarez
In 1967 he was elected president of the Louisiana Historical Association. In 1986 Joe was named “Humanist of the Year” for the state of Louisiana. Although he died in Lake Charles near the end of 1987, he is interred near Gainesville, Tennessee. His papers are at the McNeese Lether Edward Frazar Library.
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What I’m Reading – Many readers I know like to inquire what their favorite author is reading. At the end of each blog post, I’ll let you know what book is open on my Kindle. I hope my choice of reading material inspires you to read a variety of authors and topics. Currently, I’m reading Moon Hunt by Michael W. Gear and Kathleen O’Neal Gear. It is their third story of Cahokia.
Bill’s Cajun House of Pleasure is available on Amazon, as an eBook, and in physical formats. It is also available on the Barnes and Noble website.