Loretta Mae Achen Taylor, 91, passed away Sunday August 3, 2014 at the Veterans Hospital in Lexington, KY. Loretta was born November 12, 1922 in Chester, Nebraska to Ernest and Bessie Achen. As a child she moved to Ord, NE where she lived until attending the Mary Lanning School of Nursing in Hastings, NE.
After receiving her diploma as a registered nurse, she served in the Army Nurse Corps during WW II while stationed in India near the Burmese border. Following the war she worked in VA hospitals, pursued post-graduate work at University Graduate Hospital in Philadelphia and taught nursing until recalled to the Army. During the Korean War she worked on a neuro-surgical team at an Evacuation Hospital in Pusan. When a Captain, Loretta met and married her husband, then Major Royce R Taylor while both were stationed at Ft. Hood, TX. They lived in Germany, Texas and Japan before making their permanent residence in Radcliff, KY.
With marriage she gave up her career as an OR nurse and devoted herself to raising their four children. She loved being a wife and mother, serving as a homeroom mother, scout leader, Sunday school teacher, school chaperone and whatever servant role her family asked of her and was famous for her oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.
In retirement she and Royce (retired Lieutenant Colonel) enjoyed traveling the world, making numerous trips to visit their children in Europe, Hawaii and Australia in addition to taking regular cruises to the Caribbean and Alaska. She was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star, the United Methodist Church and a member of the Potted Few Garden Club, making beautiful arrangements from blooms Royce presented her with regularly from his garden.
Loretta was proceeded in death by her husband, Royce, after 50 years of marriage and is survived by her children John Taylor (Peggy) Winchester, KY, Lawrence Taylor (Lorrie) Folsom, CA, Linda Edmister (Brent) Hendersonville, TN and Joyce Greenleaf (Mark) Hodgenville, KY; her grandchildren Megan McGhee (Michael) Franklin, TN, Lawrence Edmister in Manhattan, KS and Steven Greenleaf of Hodgenville; and her siblings Patricia Larsen (Bill) Bozeman, MT, Joyce Goff (Wayne) Sun City, AZ and Dean Achen (Sonya) Unadilla, NE.

Funeral services will be held at 11 AM, Wednesday, August 6, 2014, at the Bennett-Bertram Funeral Home in Hodgenville with Rev. Michael McGhee officiating. Burial will follow in the Red Hill Cemetery.