Obituary of Tatiana Taylor

Tatiana Marinovich Taylor, born in Trieste, Italy September 14, 1939, died in Tulsa September 5, 2016. The cause was cardiac arrest, related to respiratory issues related in turn to over 20 years of dealing with cancer. Tatiana came to the U.S. with her mother at the age of 8, having spent the war years in Trieste and the village of Navarons. Her sea-captain father had brought a ship with refugees to New York, then sailed for U.S. Navy Transport and after the war for a merchant-marine company based in New Orleans. Tatiana grew up there, graduating from Newcomb College/Tulane University in 1960. After a year in Paris at the Sorbonne she took her MA in English at the University of California, where she met her husband-to-be Gordon Taylor, also a graduate student. Married in 1964, they moved in 1966 to Cambridge, MA, where Tatiana took a library-science degree at Simmons College in Boston while Gordon was teaching at Harvard. They returned to Berkeley in 1969, and then son Jonathan was born in 1971. They came to Tulsa in 1976, Tatiana to work as a Special-Collections cataloger in McFarlind Library at the University of Tulsa and Gordon to join the TU faculty. After retiring from her library position, Tatiana went on to take courses in art and did MA-level coursework in psychology at TU. Tania (as she was often called) pursued her interest in painting, mostly watercolors, collecting blue-and-white ceramics, volunteering, and reading in an ever-widening range of subjects and genres. Her book-club and painting-studio friendships were especially sustaining to her, as were her many friendships and associations throughout the city. In contentious discussion she stood her ground, while able to meet others on their turf, and indeed now and then to change her mind. A certain skepticism and ironic cast of mind let spice and edge to her presence. She also had a big heart and sought to be of help to others. She and Gordon liked to travel when possible, to New Orleans where they kept a home (until the year before Katrina) and occasionally to California. They especially enjoyed visiting Italy and France, as well as New York City and the North Fork of Long Island, and Santa Fe, NM. Tatiana was preceded in death by her parents, Maria and Ivo Marinovich, and is survived by husband Gordon, son Jonathan of Brooklyn, NY and his partner David Schleifer, brother-in-law and sister-in-law Kenneth and Melva Lee Taylor of Norman, OK and sister-in-law Kathleen Taylor Okamoto of Mukilteo, WA. The family wishes to thank the following for care and concern: the late Dr. Roger Atwood, Dr. Jana Loveless, Dr. Linda Goldenstern, Dr. Carmen Vesbianu and Dr. Darnell Blackmon; Dr. Christopher Garrett, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, and Dr. Steven Curley, M.D. Anderson and the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston; Dr. James Young, Cancer Care Associates, Dr. Connie Nguyen and Dr. Kevin Weibel, Oklahoma Cancer Specialists and Research Institute, Tulsa; TFD Station 5 and EMSA for emergency assistance, and Dr. John Halpin and the trauma-room team at St. John Hospital ER, Tulsa. The 20-year duration of Tatiana’s disease was both blessing and curse, but much of the time between crises was good time, for which we are all grateful, as all are grateful for the opportunity to know her, in whatever relation at whatever stage of her life. A memorial service will be held later. Ninde Brookside Chapel ninde.com 918-742-5556