Franklin Lee Taylor, 82, of Millboro, Virginia passed away Sunday, June 13, 2021 at his residence.

He was born March 31, 1939 in Fitzhugh, Arkansas, the son of the late Joe Thomas Taylor and Mary Elizabeth Cook Taylor.

Mr. Taylor retired from the U. S. Forest Service, Deerfield Ranger District, where he worked as a Forest Technician and Law Enforcement Officer. Prior to that he worked with the FBI from 1957-1960.

Mr. Taylor served in the U. S. Army National Guard, the U. S. Air National Guard, the U. S. Air Force, the U. S. Air Force Reserve, and the Civil Air Patrol.

He was a member of Calvary Baptist Church, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #24 in Waynesboro, a charter member of the Millboro Area Rescue Squad and the Stuarts Draft Area Rescue Squad, and the National Rifle Association.

He was an avid outdoorsman who loved hunting and fishing. In 2009 he won the Directors Volunteer Award with contributing more than 5000 hours to the Department of the Game & Inland Fisheries. He was a Hunter Education Instructor volunteering 5009 hours to the Virginia Hunter Education program and instructing more than 20,000 students in the Bath, Augusta, and Highland area.

He was a loving husband, father, grandfather, and friend to all.

On October 17, 1958, he married Kay L. Taylor, his wife of 55 years who preceded him in death on July 18, 2012. He then married Pauline Augustine Jones Taylor on December 16, 2015.

He is survived by his wife of five years, Pauline Taylor of Millboro; two children, Connie Dee Simmons and husband, Denny of Greenville, Virginia, and Thomas Wayne Taylor at home; stepchildren, Steven Beam and wife, Kim, Nanette Lam and husband, Eric, and Jessica Lawson and husband, TJ, all of Stuarts Draft, Virginia; step-grandchildren, Jessie Beam, Deven Lam, Keirsten Lawson, and Camden Lawson.

A funeral service will be conducted at 11:00 a.m., Saturday, June 19, 2021 at the Woodland Church with Pastor Mike Rollins and Chaplin John Thomas officiating. Interment will be in Woodland Union Cemetery.

Pallbearers will be Mark Forbes, Ernie Matheny, John Lockridge, Jeff Grimm, Robert Plecker, and Michael Forbes.

The family will receive friends from 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 18, 2021 at McLaughlin & Young Funeral Home.

Memorial contributions may be made to Rockbridge Hospice.