Charles Benjamin Taylor was born on April 1, 1934 to Charles Earl and
Eunice (Haynes) Taylor at his grandparents’ farmhouse 4 ½ miles east of
Hoxie, Sheridan County, Kansas. He passed away June 9, 2020 at his home
in Hoxie at the age of 86.
Ben, or “Benny” as many knew him, grew up in rural Sheridan County,
attending the Tasco and Holly Creek schools and graduating from Sheridan
Community High School in 1951. In February 1957 Ben enlisted in the
Army. After serving in Fort Carson, Colorado, he was transferred to
Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas where he worked on the Nike Hercules
missiles. He always said that they must have been expecting a different
Charles Taylor who was more highly educated! After completing his
active duty in November 1958, he returned to Hoxie to farm and ranch.
Ben married Joan Farber on July 27, 1963 at the First Presbyterian
Church in Hoxie. They made their home at the farm east of Hoxie where
they raised their two daughters, Tamara Kay and Cynthia Diane, and built
their farming and cattle operation, Taylor Farms LLC.
For Ben, while farming and ranching were hard work, they were never
his “job”. He loved working in the fields listening to KC Royals
baseball on the radio and driving through the pasture watching the new
baby calves running and playing. The future of agriculture and ag
business was important to him and he helped many young farmers and
business owners in the area start their own operations. Retirement was
never an option as he continued to work cattle with his grandchildren
and drive a tractor…baling a field of hay and checking cattle with his
grandson just the day before his death.
When Ben wasn’t working in the fields he was watching sports. You
could find him at nearly every Hoxie High School football and basketball
game. He loved to listen to and talk about baseball and, to the
amazement of this family, could recount names, dates, and statistics of
major league baseball players and details of games from his younger
years. Although he spent countless hours listening to and watching the
Royals, his favorite team was the Cleveland Indians.
Having a birthday on April Fool’s Day, or maybe in spite of that,
Ben was no stranger to pranks, either giving or receiving. He loved a
good joke and reading anecdotes by Buster Black in the High Plains
Journal.
Ben was preceded in death by his parents and his grandson, Michael Borella.
He is survived by his wife of the home; daughters, Tamara and
husband Dr. Daniel Coyne of St. Louis, Missouri and Cyndie and husband
Roger Aumiller of Hoxie; 6 grandchildren, Quinn Aumiller, Ben Aumiller,
and Katie (Aumiller) Weis and husband Lance all of Hoxie, Roman King of
Fort Worth, Texas, Nicholas Borella and wife Christine and Matthew
Borella of St. Louis, Missouri; great-granddaughter, Viola June Weis;
and sister Mary and husband Dr. Richard Mosier of Claremore, Oklahoma.
He also leaves many nieces, nephews, and friends.
A funeral service will be held on Monday, June 15, 2020, 10:00 A.M.
at the First Presbyterian Church of Hoxie. Visitation will be Sunday,
June 14, 2020 from 11:30 A.M. until 6:30 P.M. at the funeral home;
family will receive friends from 4:00 P.M. until 6:30 P.M. Memorials
are suggested to the Hoxie Community Schools- Concession Stand Building
Project and may be sent in care of Mickey-Leopold Funeral Home, PO Box
176, Hoxie, Kansas 67740. Words of comfort may be left at
www.mickeyleopoldfuneral.com