For Deborah Taylor, the memories of the past eight years came rushing back.
She could see in her mind’s eye those many customers who called on the 93-year-old oil company in the winters and the farmers who always needed the diesel fuel for the land where agriculture was their livelihood.
She saw the employees past and present, which would include the late Helen Hudson. And Deborah Taylor saw the love of her life, D.K. “Bud” Taylor Jr., who owned and operated D.K. Taylor Oil Co. after the 1973 death of his father, D.K. Taylor, founder of the business in 1932.
“It’s bittersweet,” Deborah Taylor was saying Wednesday after selling the business to Petroleum Marketing Group out of Falls Church, Va.
You could feel her emotions.
You could hear the emotion in her voice.
You could see the emotion in her tears.
“I did a lot of praying about this,” Deborah Taylor said, “and I know this is what Bud would have wanted me to do.”
D.K. “Bud” Taylor was more than a husband. He was her knight in shining armor from their wedding day of July 8, 1988, and all of the years to come. Deborah Blackmon Taylor was his princess every minute of every hour of every day until his sudden death in the spring of 2017. He loved her with every beat of his heart, and she loved him back with every beat of her heart.
“Bud always told me that if anything ever happened to him to lock the front door,” she said, “and throw the keys in the lake.”
She could have.
She was a widow with a shattered heart, and those who attended D.K. “Bud” Taylor’s celebration of life on May 29, 2017, at Hay Street United Methodist Church still can see Deborah Taylor leaning into his coffin and tenderly kissing her knight farewell.
‘If not for the employees we had’
Deborah Taylor could have walked away from the business along Cumberland Street in her heartbroken grief.
But she just couldn’t.
“Bud died May 25, 2017,” Deborah Taylor said. “I came in here the day after I buried him. I had 12 employees looking at me. They just looked at me, and I said to myself, ‘What am I going to do?’”
The fleet of oil, diesel and propane trucks would be on the delivery routes the next morning.
“Five months into this, I didn’t know what I was doing,” she said. “If not for the employees we had, I couldn’t have done this.”
Deborah Taylor says Helen Hudson and Joe Phillips were like “angels” on her shoulders teaching her the business.
“Miss Helen was like a family member,” she said of the longtime office manager. “She came here at age 17 after graduating from Linden High School, where she was the valedictorian of her class. She worked here more than 70 years.”
Helen Louisa Hudson died at age 92 on June 12, 2021.
Deborah Taylor recalls Joe Phillips’ words after D.K. “Bud” Taylor died.
“He owned an oil company in Creedmoor,” she said. “He said, ‘Whatever you need, Deborah.’ Bud always would say, ‘If I’d want somebody to run my company, it would be Joe Phillips.’”
Phillips became head of oil, diesel and propane operations in 2020.
She also hired Willa Bennett, who spent 40 years with Southern National Bank, to help in the company finance department.
“Deborah doesn’t think she’s better than anybody else,” Bennett said.
With employees to include J.D. Black, Donnie Stafford, Jack Wheeler, Bobby Tanner, Dee Stafford, Jacqueline McCloud, Willa Bennett, Joe Phillips and “Miss Helen,” the business continued to thrive.
The hours and the days were long, and the winters cold.
“They said she could never run the company,” Joe Phillips, who first worked for D.K. “Bud” Taylor as a teenager, said Wednesday. “She proved them wrong.”
‘Take care of my employees and our customers’
Deborah Taylor turned over ownership of D.K. Taylor Oil Co. on Wednesday to Petroleum Marketing Group, founded by Abdolhossein Ejtemai, who is the company’s chief executive officer.
“This has been going on over a year,” she said. “They came to me.”
There had been other offers, she said, but PMG is known for its family-oriented business ways.
“I prayed long and hard about this, but the time has come,” she said. “The company will move forward as D.K. Taylor Oil. We’ve always gone out of our way to take care of our customers.”
It was D.K. Taylor’s way from 1932 until 1973. It was D.K “Bud” Taylor’s way from 1973 until 2017. It has been Deborah Taylor’s way for the past eight years.
“I never thought I’d be doing this for eight years,” she said. “But I’ve given it all I could give for eight years.”
One caveat from Deborah Taylor for the new owner.
“I made it clear,” she said. “You’ve got to take care of my employees, and you’ve got to take care of our customers. I’ve gotten so close to my customers, because they were always so appreciative.
“But I know it’s time. I definitely know it’s time.
“It’s really been an honor to do this … to carry on Bud’s legacy,” she said. “I feel I have been blessed. It’s been quite the journey. It’s been amazing what you can do when you have to do it. And Bud always wanted a family business to carry on his legacy.”
Epilogue
Thursday was for one last visit to the oil company, and a last farewell to the oil portrait of David “Bud” Kinnie Taylor Jr. by the entrance way.
The moment was tender.
“He’s right here,” Deborah Taylor said, “all over my heart.”
We’ve all heard a picture is worth a thousand words.
And with that, Deborah Taylor left the keys to the office behind.
Coming Sunday: “You can count the seeds in an apple, but only God can count all the apples in one seed.”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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