Ronald Taylor

Ronald Louis Taylor

July 18, 1942 – October 15, 2026

Ronald Louis "Ron" Taylor, 84, of Southaven, Mississippi, passed away on October 15, 2026. He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on July 18, 1942, a few minutes before his twin brother, Don, to George Festus and Ina Dell Taylor. His father was a truck driver and his mother worked in a school cafeteria, and Ron always said he owed his integrity and values to his parents and his church. He was proud to have grown up on the South Side of Memphis, where he attended Cummings Elementary and South Side High School.                                                                                       Ron graduated magna cum laude from Mississippi State University in 1964, where he was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity, Phi Kappa Phi, Omicron Delta Kappa and Army ROTC. He later served as a commissioned officer in the United States Army, and several decades later retired from the U.S. Army Reserve as a lieutenant colonel. He later left a promising career with AT&T to attend law school at the University of Mississippi.                                                                             He said he felt it was the way the Lord was leading him, and he never regretted it. He began practicing law in DeSoto County in 1970 with the late B.G. “Bob” Perry and together they formed the law Firm of Perry and Taylor. For more than five decades, Ron practiced law in Southaven at the firm he helped build into a Martindale-Hubbell ranked law firm: the highest national ranking a law firm can achieve. He was admitted to practice before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the U.S. Supreme Court, was a Fellow of the Mississippi Bar Foundation and a member of the Lamar Order of the American Inns of Court. He served two terms as president of the DeSoto County Bar Association, in 1978 and 1986, and served on the Judicial Appointments Advisory Committee, the Board of Bar Commissioners of The Mississippi Bar and the Board of Governors of the Mississippi Trial Lawyers Association. Ron was also instrumental in the incorporation of Horn Lake in 1973 and later Southaven in 1980, helping set up both city governments as well as serving as city attorney for both. He also served as municipal judge for the city of Horn Lake and later as city attorney before moving on to become Southaven’s city attorney for over 20 years.             

During his time as Southaven’s city attorney his leadership and guidance was critical to the development and growth of the city during the 1980’s and 1990’s and through several annexations to become the third largest city in the State. He served twice on the governor-appointed Board of Economic Development for Mississippi and represented the Nation as a delegate to the Conference on Law and Bilateral Economic Relations at the Kremlin, Moscow in 1990 and later as a rule of law advisor in Tokyo, Japan. 

He was also a longtime leader of the DeSoto County Republican Party, serving as its chairman for several years and also as a delegate to the Republican National Convention three times. In 1997, the Southaven–Horn Lake Area Chamber of Commerce named him Man of the Year, and in 2024 he was recognized as a Sixty year master mason. He was also a founding member of the Southaven Jaycees, Lions Club and the Southaven Rotary Club and recognized as a Rotary Paul Harris Fellow for his years of diligent service.

For almost 20 years, Ron led Southaven Springfest as its chairman and helped grow it from a small Founder's Day picnic into one of the largest barbecue contests in the country and the official frontrunner to the Memphis in May BBQ cooking contest in Memphis. His law firm also competed with its own barbecue team, the Legal Eagles, and the last Saturday of April became an annual reunion of family, friends and neighbors and was a highlight each year for the man who often said "I really believe in contributing to your community. You can reap tremendous dividends if you make the sacrifice to serve. Ron was a true Renaissance man and a born storyteller. He had a wonderful sense of humor and a quick wit, and was famous for his long stories that sometimes wandered far and wide before landing on a perfect punchline. He was a born again Christian who relied on his faith to not only guide his life and shape the way he treated others, but to also give him strength and assurance in every season that Jesus is Lord.

Lastly, Ron had a large and loving family that he absolutely cherished and adored. He is survived by the love of his life and wife of 57 years, Elsa Parker Taylor; his son, Benjamin Louis Taylor, and his wife, Brie, of Olive Branch, Mississippi; his daughter, Anna-Kathryn Taylor, of Panama City Beach, Florida; his grandsons, Andrew Jennings Taylor, and his wife Megan, Nathan Louis Taylor, George Robert Taylor, Luke Benjamin Taylor, and James Madison Glidewell; his great-granddaughter, Emerson Blake Taylor; his twin brother, Donald George Taylor, and his wife, Nancy; his sister-in-law, Genie Taylor; and his nieces, Julie and her husband, Robert; Laura; Melissa; Lisa; and Louisa; as well as many cousins and dear friends.

He was preceded in death by his parents, George Festus and Ina Dell Taylor, and his brother, Ellis LaVoyd Taylor. Services will be held Thursday, November 5, at Broadway Baptist Church in Southaven.

Visitation begins at 10:00 a.m., followed by the service at 11:00 a.m. Burial will follow at Edmondson Cemetery in Southaven.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Broadway Baptist Church or Edmondson Cemetery in Southaven.