Loretta “Tiny” Taylor gleamed as she made her way into the school’s chapel.
It’s been 83 years since the 1942 graduate turned her tassel at what was then the all girls school St. Mary’s Academy. Now, Taylor returned to campus (now the combined St. Mary’s Ryken High School) to celebrate her latest milestone: her 100th birthday. For decades, Taylor held her Catholic faith at the center of her life. She marked her celebration with prayer and Mass, which appropriately fell on the feast of the Assumption of Mary, a holy day of obligation for Catholics worldwide.
Generations of family and friends lined up around Taylor in the pews at the special service held Aug. 15, a day before her birthday. Faculty and staff lined the back of the chapel, while the students filled the choir loft in a sea of navy and khaki uniforms. “The most valuable thing I have in my life is my faith, my family and my friends,” Taylor said. “Faith is something you live by. It’s something that disciplines you, and most of all, it’s real.”
Taylor grew up in a devout Catholic household, learning a lot from her mother and three sisters who entered religious life with the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. For the Taylor family, Catholic education was instrumental in their upbringing. “I think everyone deserves an education, especially a Catholic education,” Taylor said. “You learn so many values of life. You learn how to live them and you learn how to share them. And I think that’s what you get from this type of education here.”
Even after graduating, the centenarian used her gifts to give back to the school through student scholarships, community engagement and historic preservation. Her latest contribution went toward renovating St. Mary’s Ryken’s chapel, which was initially built in the 1970s. Wood paneling, infamous for the decade’s architecture, was replaced with intricate mosaics that depicted students and staff praying to Jesus on the cross. The school traded carpet in for tiles, and the choir loft had the school’s five core values: humility, trust, zeal, compassion and sympathy. Taylor renamed the chapel to the Chapel of Charity to honor her sisters and their religious order.
Within the 30 years that St. Mary’s Ryken CEO and President Rick Wood has worked at the school, he said he’s seen the marks her legacy has made on the community. “It’s been a blessing seeing those gifts received given back as a gift,” Wood said. “She really walks the walk and talks the talk. She’s really a living mission of what it means to be a faithful Catholic servant.”
During her birthday brunch, guests shared their favorite memories and stories they had with Taylor, describing her as the glue that holds them together.
Lynn Delahay is a longtime friend of the Taylor family and was neighbors with Taylor for a number of years when she was younger. Delahay said she always stood out as kind, always wears a smile and has a positive outlook. But when it comes to card games like bridge, she said Taylor never holds back. “I want to live to be just like her,” Delahay said. “I’ve often said, when I was young, if I could just live to be 50. Well, then I made it to 50 and was like, ‘OK, now I want to live to be a hundred.’ But now that I see her live this long, I want to live to be 125. So she gives you so much inspiration, and she’s so kind and so motivating.”
Taylor turned 100 on Saturday, Aug. 16, and was honored by Sen, Jack Bailey (R-St. Mary’s, Calvert), the Maryland House of Delegates and Gov. Wes Moore (D) on behalf of the entire state of Maryland.