Cooley Needam Taylor

Cooley Needam Taylor

Funeral services for Cooley Needam Taylor, 100, will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday, July 3, 1991, at the Peet Mortuary Chapel in Lusk. Burial will follow in the Lusk Cemetery.

Taylor died Sunday, June 30, 1991, at the VA Nursing Home in Cheyenne, Wyo.

He was born Aug. 7, 1890, on a farm at Virgil, S.D., the second in a family of nine children of William B. and Lydia Taylor. As a youth he worked at the family dairy farm near Virgil.

He assisted in raising sheep and dairy cows on his father's farm and in 1912, he saddled his pony and rode west with a neighbor, who drove a covered wagon. The neighbor, Mr. Bryant, owned some land near Hat Creek, Wyo. and Cooley filed on land near there. He worked with ranchers and built a cabin on his claim and in 1917 he enlisted in the army. He went to France in November 1917 where he served with the Rainbow Division. He served on various fronts during the entire war and a few days before the armistice he was severely wounded while fighting in the Argonne Forest. He spent a year in the hospital and when discharged, he returned to his parents' home and later to his claim at Hat Creek.

In 1919 he took a position with the County Highway Department and later he transferred to the State Highway Department. He retired in 1965.

In May 1933, he married Gladys Mae Johnson and they lived in Sheridan until 1972, when he moved to Lusk. His wife passed away in 1977. He lived in Lusk until being admitted to the VA Nursing Home in Cheyenne in August 1989.

Cooley was an avid hunter and fisherman and enjoyed Wyoming's Great Outdoors.

He was preceded in death by his wife Gladys and by three brothers and sisters.

Survivors include two brothers, Don C. Taylor of Lusk and Martin L. Taylor of Seattle, Wash.; one sister, Loretta Schipporeit of Woodburn, Ore., and numerous nieces and nephews.

Memorial to the Veterans Hospital Auxiliary in care of the Veterans Administration Hospital in Cheyenne will be appreciated by the family.

Peet Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.

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