James Peter Taylor and Kathleen Murphy-Taylor were married for over 15 years. Jim Taylor’s dangerous, confused and at times remarkable life is the subject of the memoir Willow in a Storm. As a young boy, Jim suffered from continuous abuse. As a young man he turned to crime, until during a botched robbery in 1955, he unintentionally killed a community banker, a family man with young children. Sentenced to life, Taylor faced the horrors of more than four decades of prison life, as disturbed inmates and sadistic officers threatened his very existence. He managed to survive, matured spiritually, and eventually was released at age 70, partially blind.Kathleen received her MSW from the University of Michigan and practiced social work for 32 years in the areas of child welfare, juvenile delinquency, mental health and senior citizen services. In her retirement, she gave full time care to Jim, who since 2002 suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.
At the completion of the manuscript for Willow in 2002, Jim's night terrors (mentioned in Kathy's introduction to the book) ended abruptly. It seems the writing of the book was cathartic for Jim; all of the fear and anguish of decades of penal confinement and judicial oversight was dissipated, no longer needing spontaneous release during sleep. But, also beginning that same year the first signs of dementia - the loss of memory - appeared, and then, along with other symptoms, increased ever so slowly over the years since 2002.
Jim recently passed away in January of 2012 to a better place. Kathleen continues to live in Minneapolis.
