Biography
Born in Lake Charles, Louisiana
December 8, 1943, my family moved
to the Pacific Northwest city of
Seattle in 1946. My Dad, Kilrain
Taylor heard there were jobs in the
area so he moved the family to the
Evergreen State. His first job was
at the Olympic Foundry.
Our
first home was in the Duwamish
Bend housing project located on
both sides of S. Michigan Street
between 4th Avenue S and 6th
Avenue S. The projects opened
in
1943 built for workers building
ships and planes during World War
II. The prefabricated frame homes
and apartments had a living room,
kitchen, coal and wood stove, ice
box, bathroom, electricity, and
water. When street lights were
installed, each tenant could
control the light outside their
home in lieu of a porch light.
Telephone service was not
available for two years. We were
living large after leaving the
shot-gun house in Lake Charles.
We
lived there until 1949. By this
time the family had grown to
5
children, Shirley, Robert, Zina,
Rosie Bee and Larry. Larry was the
only child born in Seattle. The 3
older children attended Duwamish
Bend Elementary School which was
later named Holgate.
Our
next home was in the Holly Park
Projects. No more ice boxes and
wood/coal stoves - wow, we thought
we were living in the lap of luxury.
During our stay at Holly Park, the
kids attended Van Asselt
Elementary School and Sharples
Junior High.
Our
next move found the family in the
CD (Central District of Seattle)
on the corner of 12th Avenue and
Remington Court.
The
three younger children attended
Bailey Gatzert, while Robert and
Shirley went to Washington Junior
High. All eventually found their
way to Garfield High School and
from there went their respective
ways: Shirley to Queens, NY,
Robert joined the Army, Zina to
Killeen Texas, Rosie to Los
Angeles, and Larry to Western
Washington University in
Bellingham.
I
eventually found my way back to
Seattle in 1963, married with my
first son Curtis in tow. Curtis
was eventually joined by Maurice
in 1965 and Jason in 1975.
My
first "real" job was at the Boeing
Company. I was hired in 1967 and
spent my first 20 years building
wire bundles for the 727 and 737.
In 1987 I was asked if I would
like to teach what I knew and was
hired by the Employee Training and
Development Organization to teach
electrical certification and
fabrication to employees. I was
the first African American women
to serve as an instructor in
that area.
That
was the best part of my 31 years
at Boeing. I took an early
retirement in 1999
at the age of 55.
While at Boeing, I took advantage
of their free computer training
classes and learned courses that
led to a home based business
called Zina's Word Processing. I
used those skills to display my
love of writing and produced a
magazine called "Gospel
Northwest."
The magazine's goal was to provide
a national media source for
Northwest gospel music artists. It
covered artists in Washington,
Oregon, Alaska, Idaho and
Vancouver Canada.
After a year of publishing a hard
copy the magazine went online with
the help of my son Curtis who has
a degree in Computer Science. My
first attempt at a website was
pretty crude, but I took courses
in website development and turned
that into a business called GNW
Website Development and Hosting.
My
love of singing took my musical
journey to the church choir,
community choirs and eventually
to the chapter choir of the
Gospel Music Workshop of
America. I joined the Seattle
Chapter in 1991. That Chapter
merged with the Vancouver Canada
Chapter and the Washington State
Chapter to become the Pacific
Northwest Chapter but the name
changed back to the
Washington State Chapter.
That
part of my musical journey has
been awesome. I currently serve as
the Chapter Rep Emeritus of the Washington
State Chapter and Administrative
Assistant of the National James
Cleveland Gospel Chorus
I currently live
in Federal Way, Washington, 20 miles south of Seattle.
I am
now the proud grandmother of 5:
Leticia, Maurice, Andre, Sierra
and Alexis, and the
great-grandmother of Joseph and
Samantha and MJ.
It's
been an awesome journey.
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