Barbara Brown Taylor age 89.

Barbara Brown Taylor passed away on Wednesday, July 02, 2025 in Pullman. She and her original Brown family considered themselves part of the wartime Hanford pioneers who gathered to build Richland, Washington in 1943. She graduated from Columbia High School there in 1953, went on to Kinman Business College, Whitworth College in Spokane, and then WSU. Barbara was a willful child.

Barbara married Warren Maddox of Pullman in 1955, they later raised three sons. In addition to being a mother and homemaker, from 1967 to 1995 she was employed full-time by WSU as senior secretary and office manager. She considered herself to be an assertive mover-shaker-troublemaker; she always meant well. Maddox died in 2010.

Barbara and J. Chelsey Taylor were married in Pullman. They remained at home in the Pullman/Moscow area during their retirement, until his death in 2021.

She leaves sons, Warren Lee Maddox Jr. (Shereen) of Boise, and Robert C Maddox (Janice) of Rainier, Washington. She also leaves her brother, Russ Brown of Richland, and her four grandchildren – Tara, Augustine, Elijah, and Ayelen.

Barbara also leaves three Taylor adult stepchildren—Bill, Roger, and Stephanie, whose beloved mother was the late Auda Vargas Taylor, and five step-grandchildren—Carmen, Olivia, Gabriel, Maya, and Faith.

In 1982 Barbara and her Maddox family lost their second treasured son and brother, Christopher Kent (Chip) Maddox, when he was only twenty-two. Some heartbreaks never heal.

In respect for Barbara’s wishes there will be no public memorial service.

—Postscript by W. Lee Maddox: During the later years in Barbara’s life, she was a devoted member of the Pullman Community Congregational United Church of Christ.

—PS by B. Maddox, Hanford Oral History Interview w/Barbara: http://hanfordhistory.com/ite…

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