ZANESVILLE – An open house is planned for Sunday, Aug. 25, to mark the birthday of a World War II veteran who fought in the Battle of the Bulge and later became a country singer who musically influenced Zanesville and the surrounding area.
“August 27 is my actual birthday,” said Denzil “Denny” Taylor. “I hope I can make it. I don’t know anyone else who is 100. I’m looking forward to meeting someone who is around my age and saying ‘hi’ to me.”
Taylor laughed at his own joke while lamenting that he already had a century to live.
“There’s a song by Jim Reeves called ‘I’ve Lived a Lot in My Time,’ and I have,” Taylor said. “I’ve seen a lot of changes. Jesus never changes, but people do.”
The cheerful man, once called “the boy with the big smile,” had no access to running water until he was 18 years old.
“When I was young we were poor, but we didn’t know it because everyone else was,” he said of his childhood in Norwich. “I remember riding in the horse-drawn carriage. My mother never drove a car in her life. She drove the horse-drawn carriage.”
Taylor said he remembers his generation having great respect for their mothers and fathers. And while the next generation is often vilified for lacking respect, Taylor said he doesn’t see it that way.
“I don’t know any bad young kids,” Taylor said. “Sometimes I don’t like what I see on TV, but so what? Young kids I know are good kids. My grandkids and (my stepdaughter Jennie Irvin’s kids) are good kids. I love them all.”
He jokes that he is sure his own father didn’t care about the things he did as a child.
“I’m sure my father probably didn’t like the songs I sang back then,” said the man who became a country singer and had his own music show on WHIZ-TV and on the radio, both called “The Denny Taylor Show.” “One of the greatest songs I ever wrote was ‘Baby, Sitting With You.’ I sang it so many times.”
But before Taylor could live his life as the country singer he always wanted to be, he first had to survive World War II.
Battle of the Bulge
Taylor’s service in the military began with a draft notice.
“I was 18,” said Taylor, who completed basic training at Camp Wolters in Texas before landing in Normandy around July 11, just over a month after Allied troops stormed the beaches on June 6, 1944. From 1943 to 1946, he served in the Army’s 26th Infantry Division, the so-called Yankee Division. “I marched through the (southwest border) into Normandy, and then the Battle of the Bulge broke out.”
Taylor said he was assigned to General George S. Patton’s Third Army via the Fourth Armored Division and invaded western France. The FAD’s rapid advance took Taylor through several battles until he was shot on January 4, 1945.
“I spent 20 days in the hospital,” he said of the injury to his left leg after being hit by a screaming Meemie, as they were then called by Allied forces. The 150mm Nebelwerfer was a piece of German rocket artillery that got its nickname because of the eerie sound the incoming rocket made. “My left leg was pretty badly damaged. I had a concussion from the shrapnel. And my stomach was pretty much torn up, too. I couldn’t eat. I got through it.”
Taylor was awarded the Purple Heart for his service and was assigned to Jeep duty with a disability of approximately 10 percent.
“I saw almost all of Europe,” he said of the trips with his former company commander. “I couldn’t get out until they shipped me out in 1946. I was discharged the day after Christmas.”
His war experiences could be reduced to one word: “Hell.”
“It was so cold. Bitterly cold. Our feet were frozen. It wasn’t fun,” Taylor said. “But I love my country. I would do it again. The United States is unbeatable.”
He said his commander had sent word home that Taylor was on his way and that two special surprises awaited him upon his return to America.
“My favorite drink was the vanilla shake, and they never had that overseas,” Taylor said. “When I got home, a young man on the boat ramp handed me a vanilla milkshake. I’ll never forget that.”
The second surprise was that he was allowed to hold his daughter in his arms.
“Patsy was born while I was there,” said Taylor, who had just gotten married when he was drafted. “She was 14 months old when I finally saw her.”
Wilda “Billie” Taylor was Taylor’s high school sweetheart. She died in 2000 at the age of 80.
“We were married for 57 years,” said Taylor, whose daughter Patsy has two children of her own. “And I also have two great-grandchildren.”
Many of them live nearby, said Taylor, who was happy to come home after the war and start the life he always wanted to lead.
“I love this country. There’s no place like this,” he said. “And there’s no place like Zanesville. It’s a good town.”
Country singer
Taylor started playing guitar in high school and picked it up again when he landed in the States.
“It was my lifelong dream,” he said of his career as a country singer. “And I made a living doing it for 50 years. I did concerts and dances all over southeast Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky.”
After returning from the war, Taylor began touring with a small group he had hired called the Muskingum Valley Boys, performing at the Secrest Auditorium and elsewhere.
“I was on WHIZ radio starting in 1948 and then on WHIZ TV starting in 1953,” Taylor said. “I was on the air for 12 years. And I had a record store in Zanesville on Sixth Street for 35 years. So, of course, Zanesville was good to me.”
Taylor said he was good enough to make it, and proved it by listing the country music greats he had the privilege of meeting and performing with.
“I’ve worked with practically most of them. Bill Anderson, Dolly Parton, Ernest Tub, Verne Gosdin,” Taylor said. “(Dolly Parton) performed at the Muskingum County Fair and she came to my record store for half the day until it was time for her performance at the fair. She’s a damn nice person. But I think that’s most country entertainers. Her song ‘Coat of Many Colors’ is a great song.”
However, his favorite country singer was Merle Haggard.
“I don’t know anything about his personal life and I don’t care. As far as singing goes, he’s the best,” said Taylor, who broke into song with the lines “I’m sick of this dirty old town…” from a Haggard song called “Big City.”
Taylor is clearly a performer and readily admits it.
“That applause, that people love what you do, it touches you too,” Taylor said. “It just does something to you. There’s nothing like it.”
Taylor said he had his guitar overseas and was lucky when Bob Hope brought the USO to play for the troops.
“Something happened with his guitarist and I got to play for Bob Hope,” Taylor said. “I’ll never forget that. Bob Hope was a great guy. He made you laugh.”
The next generation
Taylor took early retirement in 1985, but you can’t take away the music – or the guitar – from a true country singer.
“I still sing. Not great. I still sing pretty well, but I don’t play particularly well. I have arthritis in my hands,” said Taylor, who now shares his life with his partner of 20 years, Carolyn Pritchard. Their daughter Jennie Irvin also helps care for Taylor.
“They helped each other through grief counseling,” said Irvin, whose own father died at age 48. “They were good companions to each other.”
Taylor said he is grateful for the life he has been given. And he has some advice for the next generation.
“Faith in God is very important, probably more important than anything else. But being able to do what you want to do means so much,” Taylor said. “I get to make a living plucking and singing, and that’s what I love.”
Taylor then laughed with a wink and said, “Boy, there’s nothing like a good old country song.”
Birthday party
The community is invited to celebrate Denny Taylor’s 100th birthday with him at an open house on Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m. at the VFW, 1318 Putnam Ave.
