Orpha Lee Hill Taylor, 98, Gainesville, went to join the Lord on November 3, 2015. Mrs. Taylor was born on April 26, 1917 in Santa Fe, Florida, the daughter of Albert Greene Hill and Alice Belle Harris Hill. She grew up on her parents’ 500-acre farm, where she enjoyed a free-spirited childhood ‟swinging from tree-to-tree” with friends and helping her daddy catch fish from the nearby Santa Fe River. Orpha Lee graduated from Alachua High School in 1935 and married her first and only love, Samuel Joseph Taylor , Jr., in 1937. The couple were long-time residents of Gainesville and members of North Central Baptist Church. Up until a tragic fall, hospitalization, and her final days in hospice, Orpha Lee had lived with her daughter Augusta and son-in-law Edward, enjoying her daily walks, working word puzzles and jigsaw puzzles, and playing her vast repertoire of hymns and golden oldies on her beloved piano. She always had a song in her heart and a readiness to share it. Orpha Lee was pre-deceased by her parents, her husband Sam (1999), brothers Joseph, Basil, and Glenn Hill, sister Blanche McMillan, daughter Shirley Taylor Swindall and three grandchildren. She leaves behind to cherish her memory son Samuel J. (Carol Ann) Taylor III, daughters Linda (Tom) Black and Augusta (Edward) Previc, grandchildren Sharon (Donnie) Rhymes, Susan (Terry) McElwain, Greg Fitzgerald, Joseph Taylor, Matthew (Jenny) Taylor, Thomas Black III, Michael Black, and Stephanie Previc, sixteen great grandchildren, and five great-great grandchildren. The family is grateful to the staff at E.T. York Haven Hospice for their loving care of Mrs. Taylor during her final days. The family will receive friends from 8:30 – 9:00 a.m., and a service will follow at 9:00 a.m. Friday, November 6, 2015 in the Milam Funeral Home Chapel in Gainesville. Interment will follow at Evergreen Cemetery. Donations to Haven Hospice or flowers to the funeral home welcomed.
