1925-2023

Alice Pauline Boyles, 97, passed away in the early morning hours of March 6, 2023, at the Elmbrook Home nursing facility in Ardmore, Oklahoma. On a sunny day in July 1943, 18-year-old Pauline, daughter of Eugene and Velma Henderson, left a department store in Wayne County, Illinois and walked between two vehicles parked side-by-side on the street. A man sitting in one of the cars reached out and touched her arm as she passed by. She stopped and began a conversation with him. The man’s name was Coy Nolen Taylor. He was a 29-year-old divorcee raising two daughters, Wanda and Opal, and he had recently moved to Illinois from Van Zandt County to work for the Pure Oil Company refinery. Within two months of their first encounter, Coy proposed to Pauline. One can only imagine how her parents, sister, Mary Ruth, and brother, Richard Ray, felt about her possible marriage to a man 11 years older with two children. Despite their concerns, Pauline married Coy N. on Sept. 25, 1943, and just like that, she was not only an 18-year-old bride, she was also a stepmom to 10- and six-year-old girls. A son, Roy Dean, joined the family in 1945, and a second son, Coy Dewayne, came along in 1951.

In early 1951, Coy N. was transferred to the Dollar Hide refinery near Kermit, Texas. Pauline was not content being just a stay-at-home mom, so she began nursing school and earned both her LVN and RN licenses. Somehow, she juggled both a career and raising a family. Times must have been very difficult for her, but she never complained – that’s just the way she was.

After another job transfer to Lovelady, Texas in 1963, Coy N. retired in 1970 and the two moved back to Coy’s old hometown area in Van.

Despite the adversities, challenges, and another job transfer, Pauline and Coy N. remained married for over 50 years, and only ended upon Coy’s death in May 1994.

On Sept. 14, 1996, Pauline married Lane Boyles in Wood County and added even more family members to her list, including Dennis, Sharon, Shirley (and Shirley’s husband, Dean), and many more of Lane’s grandchildren and their families.

After Lane’s passing, Pauline moved to Ardmore, Oklahoma to be near her son, Coy D. Taylor, and lived many years at the Village Lodge of Ardmore. When her health began to decline, she moved to the Elmbrook Home care facility in Ardmore. During her years in Ardmore, most people affectionately referred to her as Miss Alice.

The family of Miss Alice would like to express their deepest appreciation to the compassionate and caring individuals who cared for her over the past months and years, particularly those at Elmbrook Home and Cross Timbers Hospice in Ardmore.

Funeral services for Pauline were conducted on Saturday, March 11, 2023, at Hilliard Funeral Home in Van. She will be laid to rest next to her first husband, Coy N. Taylor, at Fairway Garden of Memories Cemetery, where he will once again reach out and touch her arm.