John Howell Taylor

John Howell Taylor passed away Monday, November 6, 2017, at the Northern Louisiana Medical Center in Ruston, Louisiana. He had resided in the Alzheimer’s Unit at the Ruston Nursing Home and Rehabilitation since April of this year. He had struggled with early onset Alzheimer’s for the last twenty years.
Mr. Taylor was born January 28, 1946 in Ensenada, Puerto Rico, home to his grandparents. He spent the next fifty-two years as a resident of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, moving to Mangham, Louisiana in 1998, where he resided for the next seventeen years.
He was a 1963 graduate of University High in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The following fall he went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, transferring to LSU in 1965. He majored in political science and economics, graduating in 1968. Later that year, he entered LSU Law School, receiving his Juris Doctorate in May of 1971.
In the fall of 1971 he began practicing law in partnership with Joe Raggio, continuing their partnership into the eighties as plaintiff and personal injury attorneys, eventually taking on another partner, Ed Sutherland. He eventually left the firm for a solo practice. After closing his practice in 1998, he became legal counsel for Willstaff in Monroe.
Mr. Taylor is preceded in death by his father Chancellor Cecil G. Taylor and mother Ellen Albright Taylor of Baton Rouge, his in-laws Bob and Faye Bell of Mangham, and his sister-in-law Lisa Bell Burns Gregorie.
He is survived by his wife of fifty-one years, Jennifer Bell Taylor of Mangham; son Brunson Taylor and wife Lori of Baton Rouge; daughter Charlotte Ramirez and husband Josh of Burleson, Texas; two sisters Vicky Bassetti of New Orleans and Ellen “Bebe” Baird of Chicago; brother-in-law Robert “Bubba” Bell, III and wife Judie of Mangham; nephew Cole Gregorie and wife Beth; four nieces Victoria Bassetti and Ellen Baird of New York City, Ceres Kitchens and husband Byron of New Orleans, and Emy Traylor and husband Toby of Monroe; three granddaughters Chloe and Mona Faye Taylor and Mary Elizabeth Gordon; and two great-nephews and three great-nieces.
Mr. Taylor had a great love of people. He loved being with his extended family, his life-long U-High buddies, his poker group, and the many friends of his children who often gathered at the Taylor home. Other than his friends and family, he had a great passion for flying his airplane and technology, especially computers.
A gathering of family and friends will be held to celebrate John’s life. Visitation with the family will be held in Mangham at the Methodist Church fellowship hall from 3 to 5PM Thanksgiving Day, under the direction of Mulhearn Funeral Home, West Monroe, LA.
The family requests any donations to be made to the Alzheimer’s Association alz.org/donate_overview.asp.