Veda Elsie Dillon Taylor was born on Easter Sunday April 4, 1926, to Nila Coulter Dillon and William Walker Dillon.  She was born on the family farm near the town of Richards, Colorado.  She passed away on January 1, 2024, in Hugoton, Kansas at the age of 97.

Veda was the fifth of eleven children.  Times were tough during her childhood as the entire country was in the Great Depression and Baca County was also in the heart of the Dust Bowl.  The Dillons lived in a two-bedroom house, and she shared a double bed with four or five of her sisters.  Half of the girls slept with their heads at the head of the bed and half slept with their heads at the foot of the bed.  The Dillons did not have extra money for things like pillows and Veda had a hard time sleeping on a pillow when she was an adult.

Veda begged her mother to let her start school when she was only five years old.  Her mother let her, and she was a proud little girl to complete first grade and still only be five years old.  She started school at the country school of Glendale and when it closed, she attended school at Walsh and graduated from high school at Walsh.  Right after graduation she married Lee Taylor and to this union was born three children, Callie (Charles) Ferguson, Carl (Barbara) Taylor and Fred Taylor.

Lee served in the Army during World War II in Korea.  Veda taught school while he was overseas.  After the war they made their home 25 miles south of Walsh and bought farm and ranch land.  They lived on the farm for their entire married life.

Veda was baptized, along with her mother, at the First Baptist Church in Walsh.  It was not possible for many years for her to travel 25 miles one way to church so she and a couple neighbors would meet every Sunday for Sunday School.  She loved to sing and often joined her mother and sisters to sing at funerals.  In her later years when her eyesight was failing, she could still sing all the verses of her favorite hymns.

Veda was a very hard worker.  Her day was filled with cooking, cleaning, gardening, sewing, chickens, canning, and on and on.  But she always seemed to enjoy herself and she made work fun.  She also took time to teach her kids how to drive a car and a tractor.  She followed this up by teaching her grandkids how to drive and by the time they could see over the dash they were driving.

Veda was always ready for adventure and in her later years was able to travel some.  She made it to the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, Washington DC, Rochester MN, the Midwest, the Grand Canyon and perhaps most important to her she got to see the church her ancestors founded in Virginia before the War for Independence.

Veda was preceded in death by her parents, her husband and seven of her siblings.  She is survived by her children, four grandchildren and fourteen great-grandchildren.