Taylor, Elizabeth Herbert Smith, 1888-

Elizabeth Herbert Smith Taylor (b. 1888) of Scotland Neck, N.C., was a nurse in France during World War I, and later in several locations in the United States and abroad. She married Kempton Potter Aiken Taylor, a physician, in 1928.

From the description of Elizabeth Herbert Smith Taylor diaries, 1918-1979. WorldCat record id: 42732442

Elizabeth Herbert Smith (b. 4 Aug. 1888) was the eighth of ten children of Virginia Peterson Cocke (1850-1905) and William Edward Smith (1845?-1893) of Scotland Neck, N.C. Her siblings were William Edward Smith (b. 1875), who married Juliette Riddick Hatton; Nathaniel Colley Cocke Smith (1877-1935); James Norfleet Smith (1879-1962), who married Elizabeth Hyman; Anne (Nannie) Hayes Smith (b. 1881), who married Fred Guion and lived in New York City; Francis (Frank) Robert Smith (1883-1930), who lived in California, 1905-1910; Adelaide (Adele) Evans Smith (b. 1884), who married Albert Brown and lived for many years in Port Arthur, Tex., before returning to North Carolina; Charles Harrison Cocke Smith (b. 1886), who married Lucille Carroll; Susan Hines Smith (b. 1890), called Hines, who married Samuel Otho Jones and lived in Newport News, Va.; and Claiborne Thweatt Smith (1893- ), who married Bertha Sears Albertson.

Elizabeth Herbert Smith was educated at Woman's College in Greensboro, N.C., and completed nurse's training at St. Timothy's Hospital in Philadelphia, Pa. During World War I, she served in the Maguire Unit of the Army Nurse Corps and was sent to France. She worked, January-August 1920, with the Red Cross in Poland during a typhus epidemic. At other times, she worked as a nurse in Pennsylvania, Texas, and Guatemala.

In Guatemala in 1928, Elizabeth Herbert Smith met Dr. Kempton Potter Aiken Taylor of Philadelphia. Taylor was the brother of poet Conrad Aiken and the adopted son of Frederick Winslow Taylor, the father of scientific management. On 24 October 1928, Smith and Taylor were married in Trinity Church in Scotland Neck, N.C. After their marriage, the Taylors lived in Cuba and Panama. After Dr. Taylor's retirement, the couple lived in Clearwater, Fla. (according to information from the donor, their nephew).

From the guide to the Elizabeth Herbert Smith Taylor Diaries (#4994), 1918-1979, (Southern Historical Collection)