Jeannette Taborn

A "Commanding Presence"

Jeannette Taborn (1925-2016) took her role as a board member for various local organizations seriously. Described as someone with a “quiet and calm manner,” the retired Upjohn Company proofreader possessed a profound enthusiasm for uplifting young people, and for supporting the local arts community, specifically a focus on expanding opportunities for artists of color. Taborn’s active role in community affairs, her “concerns” as she stated, was motivated not only to see a more equitable and healthy community, but because such issues were at the core of her Baha’i faith.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1926, Taborn came to Kalamazoo four decades later. Before that, she and her husband Albert Taborn worked in the real estate industry before moving to Santa Barbara, California in the early 1960s. After five years in California, the couple moved to Kalamazoo, Albert’s hometown. She spent 18 years as a technical proofreader at the pharmaceutical manufacturer before retiring while Albert continued working in real estate and home building.   

Taborn’s list of civic and philanthropic activities over the course of two decades kept her busy, and a recognizable and respected voice in advocating for the marginalized. She served as both the president of the Kalamazoo Central High School Parent-Teacher-Student Association and later the district-wide PTSA. When six Kalamazoo Board of Education members were recalled in 1978, then Michigan Governor William Milliken appointed her to the board. A decade-long battle to equitably integrate Kalamazoo Public Schools had left behind a trail of hurt feelings and a fractured community; one in which Taborn’s thoughtful voice lent to efforts at both reconciliation and reform. In 1979, she left the Kalamazoo Board of Education to serve on the Kalamazoo Valley Intermediate School District board, where she stayed until 1996.

A longtime member of the NAACP, she served as vice president of the local chapter in the early 1980s under then-president Romeo Phillips. It was during this time when she became involved in organizations charged with addressing institutional racism. In 1994, both she and her husband were awarded the Race Unity Award sponsored by the Baha’i Communities of Kalamazoo, Portage and Battle Creek; the Kalamazoo Valley Institute for the Healing of Racism; and the local chapter of the United Nations Association.

In addition to her volunteer work in the areas of civil rights and education, expanding opportunities for artists from all socioeconomic backgrounds became Taborn’s calling in the early 1980s, when she served on the board of the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo. Taborn pushed the organization to diversify its ranks, and to focus on growing a more inclusive membership through affordable dues. She established the Making Arts Grow in Kalamazoo, program that connected local artists with students.

“When I got on the Arts Council, it wasn’t diversified, and after not too long a time it included all kinds of people: rich, poor; country; city…all races and economic levels. It was just a wonderful time. I felt good about all those things.”

Kalamazoo Gazette, 30 June 2001

For her efforts, the Arts Council awarded her its prestigious Community Medal of Arts in 1990. No doubt her interest in the arts was personal for Taborn, having two successful singers as daughters (Annette and Karen). Her granddaughter Shana currently leads the successful indie rock band La Luz. After the passing of her husband in 1994, Jeannette relocated to Davison, Michigan to live with her son Albert Taborn Jr., the grandson of onetime Kalamazoo builder Albert J. White. She later moved to the Seattle area, where she passed away in 2016.

“Through the years, Taborn’s quiet but distinguished service again shows that a person who can be described accurately as a “truly sweet lady,” also can be an effective leader.”

Kalamazoo Gazette, 11 September 1996

Written by Ryan Gage, Kalamazoo Public Library staff, November 2024