Jim and Marty Taggart’s lives have reflected the many ways that they and their family have enriched Wooster, the community in which they have lived for many years.
Martha Curry Taggart (Marty) was born in Norfolk, Virginia. Her father was a Methodist minister; thus, the family moved every four years to a number of cities in Virginia during her youth. She attended Northwestern University and graduated in 1954, majoring in History and International Relations. After teaching for several years in Illinois and Virginia, Marty, with a desire to see the world, taught English on the US Air Force base in Bitburg, Germany. This base included housing for military personnel and their families, schools, a commissary, and a hospital.
James W. Taggart (Jim), who was born in Cleveland and raised in Wooster, graduated from Otterbein College. During the Korean War, he was in the Air Force ROTC, and as required, then served in the Air Force for three years. He happened to be stationed at the base in Bitburg, Germany, where Marty was a teacher!
Jim and Marty were introduced at an Officers’ Club dance on base, after which she invited Jim to help her wrap Christmas packages. Marty says she enjoyed teaching Jim the art of package wrapping, and soon after that time together, they began to date. Their first date was at a party at which an Ohio State-Northwestern football game was being broadcast on the radio. (Northwestern won!). This first date was also on Marty’s birthday. They continued to date and eventually Jim wished to propose. The ring he had ordered was late in arriving, which altered Jim’s proposal plans. There were several “dry runs,” with Jim inviting Marty to a possible proposal site, yet with the proposal delayed since no ring had arrived. When the ring finally did arrive, after Marty had finished teaching one day, Jim came to the school with the newly-arrived ring. The proposal itself was not as he had planned, with the addition of two school-teacher friends “listening in” just out of sight! Marty also remembers that while engaged, in a theater performance on the base, she played Nellie Forbush in “South Pacific” and had to sing “Wash that Man Right Out of My Hair!”
After their engagement, with Jim having returned earlier to the States, Marty moved home with her parents, who had just moved from Portsmouth to Roanoke. She was only home two weeks before her wedding day and in retrospect, she realizes how difficult it must have been for her mother to organize the wedding in such a short period of time in a brand-new city. Jim and Marty were married on July 7th, 1960, in Roanoke, VA. Marty’s father was the officiant, and her uncle gave her away.
The Taggarts then moved to Columbus, Ohio, with Marty as a 7th grade teacher and Jim attending law school at The Ohio State University. He graduated with a law degree in 1963. After graduation, the Taggarts moved to Dalton, OH, in Wayne County, to be closer to Wooster and Jim’s work in the family law practice there. Their three children were born during this time: Jimmy in 1964, Margaret Elizabeth in 1965 and Nancy in 1968. The Taggarts moved to Wooster and their present home in 1976. Here Jim continued his practice with the Taggart Law Firm, L.P.A.. The firm was founded by Judge Frank Taggart in 1876. Judge Taggart’s life-long commitment to Wayne County was continued by his son, David. A. Taggart, Jim’s father. David practiced his entire life in Wooster and served professionally in many aspects of community service. His passion, though, was the Boy Scout movement, and Jim has carried on his father’s passion for history and scouting, thus continuing the family legacy in those endeavors.
Jim has been involved with Boy Scout Troop 61, Wooster’s oldest Troop, which has served the Wooster area since 1913. The Taggart family was also instrumental in the formation of Pee Wee Hollow, Inc., a private protected nature preserve in Wayne County for the benefit of the Scouts. It was founded in 1923. Thousands of Scouts have camped at Pee Wee Hollow since then, where they have developed teamwork and made lifelong friendships. Westminster Presbyterian Church has sponsored this troop since its earliest days. The relationship between the church and Troop 61 has provided support to both Scouts and to the WPC congregation.
The Taggart family have been members of Westminster Presbyterian Church for generations. Judge Frank Taggart, Jim’s grandfather, was a member of the class of 1873 at the College of Wooster (known then as the University of Wooster) and was one of the first members of Westminster Presbyterian Church. Jim and Marty were fully involved in many church duties and activities as were earlier generations of Taggarts. Jim was baptized by Reverend Bates. Jim and Marty were here when the Church House was built, and their children attend the nursery school at the Church house during the time that Clare Adel Schreiber was Director. Jim has been a Deacon, Elder, Clerk of Session and Trustee. Marty was a Deacon and youth group leader during the time Rev. Schwartzbach (pastor at Westminster from 1967 to 1972) was here.
From the earliest days of her own motherhood, Marty was an advocate of La Leche League, at a time when the support of this organization was vital to mothers who wished to nurse, yet needed support during a time when bottle-feeding was the norm. In 1966 and 1967, Alice Hawley and Marty formed the Wayne County chapter of La Leche League. A Lamaze class was also begun, and in 1977, Pris Gates organized the Wayne County Childbirth Education Association in which Marty was also much involved. At that time classes in childbirth were offered free for couples.
Marty was a learning disabilities tutor at the junior high school and high school until 1987. She then opened Gallery 2, a shop selling unique, lovely works of local artists and jewelers. The shop was active from 1987 to 1996. She loved the shop, but due to changing shopping patterns, especially the move to more out-of-town shopping impacting the amount of clientele, the Gallery closed, and after a time Brian Wolf, now a world- renowned art-mat designer, reopened it. That shop is now Walnut Street Gallery, owned by Loren Fedorowicz.
The Taggarts live in the original Taggart family home. Judge Frank Taggart built this home in 1883, and members of the Taggart family have lived in the home continuously since that time. In 1993, the Taggarts had the option to buy the house next to the Taggart family home, which was owned by the Compton sisters, who had moved to West View Manor. The Taggarts converted the home into the Leila Belle Inn, a sought-after Bed and Breakfast for visitors to Wooster; especially in the summer with the Ohio Light Opera and with college events, such as Parents’ Week-end. The Leila Belle closed in 2007, and the Taggarts gave the home to their children, who may decide to re-open it.
For a number of years, the Taggarts lived in Florida in the winter months and then at their home in Wooster. They are now here in Wooster full-time, staying abreast of timely events here and abroad.
It is a blessing to have the Taggarts as part of the Westminster family.
