Emma Delean Smith Taylor, daughter of Ridgeway and Romena Shipman Smith was born in Hinesville, Liberty County, Georgia on May 30, 1953. She became a member of First Calvary Missionary Baptist Church in Hinesville, at age 9. She was a descendant of Reverend Samuel Hargrove a person who liberated himself from slavery and became part of a founding collective of the church where her father served as Chairman of the Deacon Board for over 50 years and her mother was the church pianist. In Hinesville, she learned the importance of community from her parents, friends and neighbors of Rebecca Street which was named for her maternal grandmother.

She was educated during segregation in Liberty County schools attending Hineshaw Elementary, Liberty County High School and experienced integration her senior year at Bradwell Institute in Hinesville, Georgia. She played piano, participated in marching band at Liberty County High School where she played flute and oboe. Upon her high school graduation, she attended Savannah State College now University and majored in Secondary Education/English Literature. There Delean met Walter L. Taylor her future husband. She returned to Hinesville after graduation from Savannah State College and taught at her alma mater Bradwell Institute for two years.

Delean and Walter united in holy matrimony May 28, 1977 and they moved to Perry, Georgia. Delean taught English at Northside Junior (now middle), Perry High School, and taught for 26 years at Warner Robins High School. She retired after 31 years in 2006. A devoted wife and mother, she departed this life Saturday August 7, 2021 and leaves to mourn her passing: her husband, Walter L. Taylor, and her only daughter Deitrah Joye Taylor of Perry, Ga; one sibling of Hinesville, Ga; seven sisters in law throughout the state of Georgia, five brothers in law throughout the southeast, Aunt Edna Mae Miller and her special Aunt Johnnie Mae Miller and many special cousins in Hinesville Georgia among the Lumpkin, Miller and Shipman families. She has many nieces and nephews including Nicky Smith, LaRay Gladney and Shane Smith who were her first babies and became God-siblings to her daughter Deitrah. Many dear friends, classmates, neighbors, colleagues, and former students.

She is predeceased by her parents Ridgeway Smith, Romena Shipman Smith, her elder and only brother James Jerome Smith, two sisters in law and two brothers in law and the ancestors who have welcomed her into her new Heavenly home.