Bob Taggart: A life well-lived

Sisters lost one of its most storied residents last week when Bob Taggart died at the age of 98.

For years a fixture at Sisters Coffee Co., Taggart was a beloved figure to many in Sisters - and a living piece of American history.

Taggart came in on the year of Halley's Comet in a small town in West Virginia. In 1918, at age eight, he nursed his family through the flu pandemic that took more lives than all of World War I.

Taggart attended college for a degree in Mechanical Engineering and paid the $38 annual tuition by making and selling moonshine whiskey. His other college jobs were playing trombone in Dick Cisco's Dance Band, making music in a circus band when the trapeze artists and the elephants were performing, and as a theater checker.

In 1938, Taggart married his neighbor, Margaret Burdette in a field in Virginia. The whole thing cost him $1. The best investment of his life, as his marriage lasted 64 years and "Marg" was the one and only love of his life.

Right before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Taggart enlisted in the Army. He chose the infantry. Noting Taggart's college studies the recruiter said, "Infantry? Any fool can join the infantry!" To which Taggart replied in his calm manner and infectious smile, "Well then, I'm well qualified."

Seven months after enlisting he was promoted to Sergeant Major, the highest of the enlisted ranks, an unheard-of promotion which usually takes an entire career to earn. Soon after, his commanding officer ordered Taggart to Officer Candidate School. He wasn't willing to go any other way. As an army officer he lived through the bloodiest battle that US forces engaged in, the Battle of the Bulge.

It wasn't uncommon for troops to go without bathing or a change of clothes due to the rigors of battlefield life. Taggart and his men were no exception. They ended up going 91 days straight one time, an event Taggart's coffee buddies liked to remind him about.

He met up with Doc Ben Cooper, an army medic assigned to the 45th Infantry Division, of which Taggart's battalion was a part. Together the two marched through Germany to capture Munich under the command of Lt. Col. Felix Sparks.

The stench was the first tip-off that something wasn't right as the division marched on. With just seven officers to command 152 enlisted men in his battalion, Lt. Taggart and his men were ordered in. Following their noses, their eyes fell on the most horrific scene anyone could have imagined: the concentration camp at Dachau. Thirty-nine freight cars of bodies that had perished while the German guards were moving them from outer camps to Dachau.

Inside the camp there were great heaps of corpses and many walking skeletons.

After the liberation of the camp, Lt. Taggart was sent on to Munich; Doc Cooper was then ordered into Dachau along with many other medics, not to treat the ill (others were doing that), but as a witness.

Both men carried with them from that day forward the vivid memories of April 29, 1945.

Besides Germany, Taggart and his men also served in Italy; in Anzio and in the invasion of Sicily. The 45th Infantry Division is credited for 511 days of combat and engaged in eight campaigns.

The time Tag and Doc spent together formed a binding friendship. Cooper reflected on his comrade recently, "My friend, my commanding officer, 'Hambone' Taggart was a vibrant, one-in-a-million guy. He was kind and had such a superb way about him. He was a prince."

When asked about Taggart's leadership, Cooper replied, "Tag led by doing. He called you by your first name, played that hambone to entertain us guys to get our minds off the war, and made each task seem like something well worth doing and you just wanted to do things for him. He watched over us like a hawk and we knew it. His southern drawl endeared him to us. He was the brother I never had. I miss him so much."

After World War II ended, Taggart was relocated to Johnson Air Force Base near Tokyo, Japan. Shortly after arriving, the Korean War broke out and he was deployed to that country to serve.

The mid-1950s found Taggart at the Presidio of Monterey, CA in the Defense Foreign Language Program. He was now in Intelligence and needed to learn how to speak Czech. The Cold War had Taggart and his family stationed in Germany, where he took advantage of this opportunity to ensure his family saw this part of the world and the many wonderful sights and places there.

Upon his return to the states, the now-Major Taggart was stationed at Fort Dix, New Jersey, till his retirement in 1962 as a Lieutenant Colonel.

"He was a soldier's soldier, an officer and a gentleman," said his good friend Spud Halsten.

Lt. Col Taggart showed valor and bravery on many occasions, earning two Silver Stars and two Bronze Stars in service to his country.

A job with the Curtis Publishing Company (publisher of the Saturday Evening Post) brought Taggart to Oregon in 1962. He eventually settled his family in Woodland, Washington. While setting up magazine fund raisers at schools for Curtis Publishing Company, he made stops in Sisters to visit the schools. After his final retirement in 1977 he considered the little town and came here for good in 1988 with his wife, Marg.

Marg passed on in 2002 and left Taggart with a lifetime of love and a broken heart. Shortly thereafter, as fate would have it, the "Coffee Boys" were born (Spud Halsten, Chuck Marshall and Jack Lepper, with a few more coming occasionally).

It worked itself out that the oldest of the group, Taggart, who still qualified for his driver's license up until his death, would pick up the other three boys (whom he called, "the kids") every day (except Thursdays and never on Sundays) and head on over to Sisters Coffee Company to solve the world's problems over a good cup of joe.

During Taggart's 97th birthday celebration at Sisters Coffee Co., a young adult German woman who heard the boys storytelling approached the table where the Coffee boys hung out, she dropped to her knees and thanked Taggart for rescuing her people. That was a treasure he kept in his heart.

Taggart especially loved history days at Sisters Christian Academy and talking to people. His daughter, Kara Mickaelson, who took care of her parents till their deaths said, "I was taught honesty and respect for others by my dad. I have not one bad memory of him. He was wonderful."

A Celebration of Life service will be held on Saturday, December 13, at 2 p.m. at Sisters Community Church, 1300 W. McKenzie Hwy. All are welcome.