Mary Jane Taylor

Mary Jane Taylor, born Mary Antoinette Jane Frances Earle Angell on August 1, 1941, in New York City, passed away peacefully on March 11, 2026, at the age of 84.

The daughter of Jane Earle Angell of Traveler’s Rest, South Carolina, and Emmett Dunn Angell II of Woodglen, New Jersey, Mary Jane grew up in Hunterdon County. She graduated with the first class of the new Woodglen School and from North Hunterdon Regional High School in 1959, where she served as an officer of the Senior Executive Committee, Art Editor of the yearbook, Prom Chair, and class Historian. She attended the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, where she founded the university’s Literary Arts Magazine. Her studies were interrupted by tuberculosis, from which she recovered as a patient at Mt. Kipp Sanatorium in Lebanon Township, New Jersey.

Mary Jane moved to Los Angeles, where she met and married David Owen Taylor in a union that lasted 43 years. Together they raised their daughter, Marissa Victoria Taylor, and delighted in their four grandchildren: Angel, Owen, Maurice, and Nico. While David built a long career at George Rice Printing Company, Mary Jane channeled her artistic and literary talents into environmental advocacy, most notably her dedicated work on behalf of the Ballona Wetlands. She completed her BA in Nutrition from Cal State LA and worked in the food industry and banking. She and David embraced the Los Angeles lifestyle, traveling widely, collecting art, and enjoying a rich social life. David passed away in August 2020.

Deeply spiritual, Mary Jane was a devoted member of the Nichiren Shoshu Buddhist Temple. She was a lifelong Sierra Club member, an avid tennis player, and a passionate artist who worked in watercolor, oil, pencil, and pastel. She remained intellectually curious and enthusiastic in all her pursuits, even earning a green belt in Taekwondo alongside her daughter when Marissa was young. After David’s death, she returned to her beloved Califon, New Jersey, where she was surrounded by family and lifelong friends until the end.

She is lovingly survived by her daughter Marissa, her brother Emmett Dunn Angell III, known as Chip, and her four grandchildren. Mary Jane will be remembered for her creativity, intellectual curiosity, spiritual devotion, and the quiet strength with which she lived her life.