Jennie Taylor
Jennie Taylor is the proud wife of fallen politician and Guard member, Brent Taylor –who was killed in Afghanistan.
Jennie’s husband is best known for having served as mayor of North Ogden, Utah; and was also a major in the Utah National Guard serving in Afghanistan when he was killed. He was on his fourth deployment.
Major Taylor, was killed on Saturday in an insider attack, apparently by one of the people he was there to help. He was 39-years-old.
Major Taylor, who grew up in Arizona, enlisted in the military after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. So did his five brothers. Before his last tour, he had served twice in Iraq and once in Afghanistan.
He joined the City Council in 2009, was chosen as mayor in 2013 and was re-elected in 2017.
Brent is survived by his wife, Jennie Taylor and their seven children.
Jennie Taylor and Brent were married for 15-years prior to his death. Five of those years they spent apart during Brent’s deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Brent often posted periodic updates on Facebook, in one of them speaking about his wife he wrote, “[Jennie] is truly the center of our home and at the very center of all our lives,” Taylor wrote. “I second Winston Churchill, who said: ‘My most brilliant achievement was . . . to persuade my wife to marry me.’ ”
Jennie Taylor and her husband welcomed seven kids together; Megan, 13; Lincoln, 11; Alex, 9; Jacob 7; Ellie, 5; Jonathan, 2; and Caroline, 11 months.
The now widow and mom of seven also spent time helping and supporting families of the fallen in any way she could. In 2015 she organized a fundraiser called operation Teddy Bear in order to provide Build-a-Bear teddy bears in full uniform to the children of deployed Utah National Guard servicemen and women.
Jennie Ashworth Taylor was always supportive of her husband’s decision to serve. The couple even spoke about it in their first date and three days after their engagement, Brent had enlisted.
She told media during her LDS mission to Santiago, Chile, she understood the importance of “good men” in the community. The then 21-year-old promised she ‘would never get in the way of what my God needs my husband to do in life.’
