Wilma Tauxe, a kind, resilient woman who had lived in Pacific Palisades for 53 years, passed away on February 3. She was 93. Born in Los Angeles, Wilma Louise Hollins was raised in Glendale. After graduating from junior college and business school, she worked for a real estate developer. She met George Tauxe in an English literature class and their first date was at a Science Club party at the home of Bob Wein, who later founded Bob’s Big Boy. The Tauxes were married on August 29, 1936. George was an electrical engineer, and as he pursued advanced degrees (Cornell, Wisconsin and UCLA)’plus time in the Navy’the Tauxes moved a lot. They came to the Palisades in 1954 and remained in the same house on Friends Street until Wilma’s death. Many people knew Wilma from her daily two-mile walk around the neighborhood. Still more knew her from her commitment to the Methodist Church and P.E.O., where she was always involved in charitable activities such as making sandwiches for the homeless, crafting items for the annual church bazaar, baking pies, and contributing her time and energy in many other ways. Soft-spoken and unassuming, with loving traits and modesty, Wilma left a quiet but enduring mark on the community. About 1960, Wilma became a teacher at the Methodist Church Preschool, a job she enjoyed for 18 years. Through that time and after her retirement, she kept in touch with her students and their families, sharing experiences as the young children she taught became adults, embarked on their careers, and had children of their own. She remained proud of those students, and into her nineties could still point at a house in the Palisades and tell the story of the student who used to live there’this one was now traveling the world, that one was a successful doctor. Wilma and George were very proud of their two sons, George Willis and John Gregory, but lost both to early deaths in 1992 and 1993. Though George, Jr. died suddenly of unexpected heart failure, Greg suffered from degenerative multiple sclerosis and slowly declined over many years. Through those years, he lived with George and Wilma, and Wilma was his complete caregiver, selflessly devoting her full time to his care. In the years that followed, Wilma turned her caregiving attentions to her husband as his health declined following open-heart surgery. George passed away on July 9, 2006, just short of the couple’s 70th wedding anniversary. Wilma is survived by their two grandchildren: Lianne Tauxe, now of Pacific Palisades, and John Hagen of Renton, Washington. A memorial service will be held at 11:45 a.m. on Sunday, May 20, at the Methodist Church, 801 Via de la Paz. Donations in her memory may be made to the church choir.
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