William Royal Taylor

Royal Taylor

Casey Creek Community – William Royal Taylor passed away Sunday, November 30, 2025, at the age of 87. As he would start his stories, “Well I was born and raised in Tishomingo County” to William Riley and Clesta Riddle Taylor on what is now the Jackson’s Camp Peninsula of Bay Spring Lake. He was a 1956 graduate of Tishomingo High School and earned degrees at Northeast Mississippi Community College in Building Trades, Auto Mechanics, and Welding on the GI Bill. He served in in the U.S. Army from 1961-1963. He was an employee of Tishomingo Grain Elevator from his high school years until the 1970s. He married Mittie Marthell Taylor on November 30, 1963. Together they started dairy farming in 1966, an operation that is still operated today as Taylor Jersey Farm Inc. The formation of the farm farming operation and family relocated to southern Prentiss County in the late 1970s due to the formation of the Tenn Tom Waterway and Bay Springs Lake. Mr. Taylor also worked as a maintenance employee at a few of the local furniture factories in the 1990s. He was a member and lifetime worshiper of Mackey’s Creek Primitive Baptist Church , where he served as Deacon and Church Clerk.

Funeral service will be held at Mackey’s Creek Primitive Baptist Church in Burton at 11:00 a.m. with Bro. Rickey Taylor officiating. internment in the cemetery immediately following. Mr. Taylor will be laid to rest beside his parents, both sets of grandparents and many other Taylor and Riddle family members who preceded him in death. Waters Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements.

Mr. Taylor is survived by his wife of 62 years, Marthell Taylor; two sons, Royce (Mary Jo) Taylor of Dumas; Bradley (Carla) Taylor of Booneville; one daughter, Melissa (Richard) Norris of Booneville, one sister, Eveyln McGill of Blue Springs; fourteen grandchildren, Brandy Rolison, Thomas Taylor (Lakin), Shawn Taylor (Nikki), Ben Criswell, Candace Huddleston, Lisa Stevens, (Jimmy), Donna Bonds (Jonathan), Megan Goddard, Tyler Gober (Kaitlin Marie), Matt Norris (Emily), Blake Norris (Ashley), Lee Taylor, Carl Taylor and Holden Tayor; 31 great-grandchildren, and 1 great-great grandchild.

Pallbearers will be grandsons, Thomas Taylor, Shawn Taylor, Tyler Gober, Lee Taylor, Carl Taylor and Holden Taylor.

Visitation will be held at Waters Funeral Home of Baldwyn on Tuesday, December 2, 2025 from 5:00 pm. – 8:00 p.m. The body will lie in state at the church on Wednesday, from 10:00 – 11:00 a.m.

Expressions of sympathy may be sent to the family @www.watersfuneralservice.com