Bertha L. Taylor

Mrs. Bertha Louise Hopp-Taylor was born on October 5, 1938 in Whitmire, SC.  She was the daughter of the late Melton and Rose Hopp.  She departed this life on Monday, June 20, 2022, at her residence in Columbia, South Carolina.

Bertha left South Carolina after she graduated from Gallman High School.  She moved to Washington, DC and then to Detroit, MI where she met and married Robert J. Taylor.  Out of this union came two daughters, Jacqueline Taylor-Summers, and Debra Taylor-Ien.

Bertha was a member of several churches in her lifetime (Jeter Chapel AME, Carlisle, SC; Salem Missionary Baptist Church, Brooklyn, NY; Whiteford Baptist Church, Lexington, SC, and St. Paul Baptist Church, Lexington, SC.

Bertha moved to New York in the early 1960’s where she got a job working for a bag company.  In 1964, she started working for the New York Telephone Company also known as Verizon.  Bertha started as an operator and after 25 years with Verizon, she retired in 1990 as a manager.

Those who shared the joys of life with her and survived to cherish her memory are her loving daughters, Jacqueline Taylor-Summers of Charlotte, NC; and Debra Taylor-Ien of Lexington, SC; one grandson, Darryl L. Ien, Jr.; and one great-grandson Kayden Hightower of Lexington, SC.

She was preceded in death by her ex-husband; her parents; two brothers, Robert Lee Hopp and Billy Joe Hopp; two sisters, Dorothy Carter and Mildred Rogers; two sisters-in-law, Mattie Epps Hopp and Lois Sanders Hopp.

Other siblings left to cherish her memory are Josephine Peak of Long Beach, Long Island, NY; and Rosetta Darby of Brooklyn, NY; one sister-in-law, Nancy Hopp of Union, SC; James (Hix) Hopp, Sr., and Aletha H. Reeder of Newberry, SC; and a host of nieces, nephews, other relatives, and friends who mourn her passing.