Antoinette Elizabeth Taylor, PhD, was born 10 June 1917 in Columbus, Georgia, the daughter of Thomas Earl and Angie M. Taylor. Her father was a partner in the Miller-Taylor Shoe Company and she grew up expecting to go to college. The family lived mainly at 1503 Hilton Ave. in Columbus. She graduated with honors from the University of Georgia in 1938 with a bachelor's degree in history. She went to the University of North Carolina for her master's degree in history with an emphasis on southern history. She taught a year at Judson College in Marion, Alabama and then decided to pursue a doctorate at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Graduate work was a little out of the ordinary at that time for women but because of World War II graduate schools had more openings as the men were off at war. She was one of the first Columbus women to earn a doctorate. She wrote her dissertation on "The Woman Suffrage Movement in Tennessee". After receiving her doctorate, Dr. Taylor moved to Denton, Texas in 1943, where she taught history for 38 years at Texas Woman's University. After retiring, she wrote articles for the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, The Georgia Historical Quarterly and an article about Augusta Howard in the Dictionary of Georgia published by UGA. An award was established in her honor by the Southern Association for Women Historians. Upon her retirement in 1981, she returned to Columbus and was a member of the First Baptist Church. She died 10 October, 1993 and is buried in Parkhill Cemetery.