Mary Emily Marshall Taylor of Taylor Made Farm dies at 85

Mary Emily Marshall Taylor, the wife of the late central Kentucky horseman Joe Taylor and the mother of Taylor Made’s owners and operators, Duncan, Ben, Frank, and Mark Taylor, died Saturday. She was 85.

A native of Frankfort, Ky., Mary Emily Marshall married Joe Taylor in 1948. Joe Taylor began working at Gainesway Farm in Lexington, Ky., in 1952 and oversaw that farm’s growth into a prominent Thoroughbred breeding operation over the next four decades.

Duncan Taylor started Taylor Made in 1976. The business, headquartered in Nicholasville, Ky., is one of the leading sales and breeding operations in the industry. Joe Taylor died in a car accident in 2003 at age 79.

Mary Taylor was a parishioner of the Cathedral of Christ the King in Lexington for more than 60 years and was an adorer at Christ the King and at St. Luke’s Parish in Nicholasville.

In addition to her four sons, Mary Taylor is survived by daughters Mary Joe Quinn and Emily Taylor, 20 grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren.

Visitation services were to be held at Christ the King in Lexington at 10 a.m. Eastern on Tuesday, followed by the Mass of Christian burial at noon and final burial at Lexington Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration Maintenance Fund, 299 Colony Blvd., Lexington, Ky., 40502.