Calais store owner dies at 76

CALAIS – Anytime you walked into George Taylor’s furniture store on the River Road, he was there to greet you.

For more than 50 years, Taylor, 76, was a fixture in this border community not only as a longtime furniture store owner and civic leader, but as a friend to many.

Taylor died Friday after a brief battle with esophageal cancer.

He was the son of Melvin and Grace Taylor. His mother attracted countywide attention in 1992 when the Bangor Daily News wrote about her on her 100th birthday. Years earlier she had met country singer Gene Autry at some rodeos she attended. They later corresponded, and George Taylor was very proud of his mother’s pen pal.

George Taylor began his career working for Stewart Furniture in Calais. In 1958, he opened his own used furniture store on North Street, later moving it to Main Street. In 1970, Taylor moved his business, which sold only new furniture, to its current location on the River Road.

Longtime friend and fellow businessman Dan Hollingdale said Monday he and Taylor had known each other for more than 45 years. Hollingdale, who owned the local radio station, said Taylor was one of his advertising clients.

“We’d go for coffee three or four times a week and we’d been friends ever since,” he said.

Pointing out that Taylor loved people, Hollingdale recalled the time he and Taylor ended up in a country kitchen to repair a stove. Taylor had invited Hollingdale along.

“There was this little old lady in the kitchen, it was September, it was really warm, she was baking pies,” he said. “Her brother lived with her, he had one arm.”

Taylor fixed the stove and refused payment, Hollingdale said. “Instead we sat down and had a piece of pie.”

Drew Case of Calais Ace Home Center on North Street also remembered Taylor on Monday.

“George was a great guy. Not only in the business world, but just as a personal friend,” he said.

Case said he first met Taylor while in high school. “I wanted to buy my mother an end-table set and it was $29.99 for all three pieces, and I didn’t have it. I was only in high school,” he said. “He didn’t know me from Adam. He said, ‘Drew, how are you going to pay for it?'”

Case told him he had just started work as a cook at a local restaurant. “He said, ‘How much can you pay me a week?’ I said $5. He said, ‘You take that and tell your mother happy birthday,'” Case said, laughing. “My mother was so tickled over that.”

Taylor also was remembered Monday for his commitment to Calais. He was a member of the City Council and on the board at Calais Regional Hospital. He also was a member of the Calais United Methodist Church.

“Him and Roy Pike, who was the Methodist minister at the time, started the Methodist Homes Project [for senior citizens] off Franklin Street,” Hollingdale said. “He was just a good man.”

Assistant City Manager Jim Porter said he had known Taylor for more than 20 years. He said Taylor’s death was a loss to the city.

“He was a man I respected very much, he was very civic-minded,” he said. “You’d see his name on all these committees like the high school and the planning board and other committees.”

Taylor married Jean Tarbell in 1952. They had one son, George Taylor Jr. Jean Taylor died, and Taylor later married Helen Taylor. His daughter-in-law, Regina, and grandson, Chris, survive him.

Services for Taylor were held Monday at the Calais United Methodist Church.

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