Arlie Lamar Taylor, 89, of Dallas, Texas, passed away surrounded by loved ones on Sunday, April 10, 2022, after a short hospital stay due to an illness.
Born July 3, 1932, in Zebulon, Georgia to the late Alfred Arlington Taylor and the late Sarah Louise (Yeager) Taylor in his grandparents’ farmhouse. Arlie, the oldest of five children, is predeceased also in death by sisters June Hamrick of Barnesville, Georgia. Carol Wade of Stockbridge, Georgia, Gloria Morris of High Point, North Carolina, and brother MacArthur “Mac” Taylor of Williamson, Georgia.
Arlie, known as “Lamar” in his hometown, graduated from Griffin High School in 1950, where he developed his love and talent for the game of basketball. After a successful high school career on the court, he would continue playing at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. There he became a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, establishing friendships that continued throughout his life. After graduating Georgia Tech with a degree in Textile Engineering, he enlisted in the United States Coast Guard where he served in Miami, Florida and eventually in the Hawaiian Islands where he performed rescue missions on a CG Cutter.
His career in the hospitality industry began in 1958 after he was discharged from the USCG in Honolulu. He went from a desk clerk at the Moana SurfRider Hotel on Waikiki Beach to the General Manager in four short years. He remained in the islands for ten years and loved to tell his family and friends about his time there and about all the famous figures of the day that he met while working and living there. This began his decades-long career as a pioneer in the hotel industry managing and developing hotels in Los Angeles, Houston, and Dallas as a commercial real estate developer until the time of his death.
Remaining active and vibrant until the very end of his life, Arlie enjoyed traveling, teaching his grandchildren to play basketball and attending their sporting events, where with his distinct southern accent, was always a familiar face and boisterous fan on the sidelines. He loved to watch sports of all kinds and would call and update everyone on his favorite teams, especially the Dallas Cowboys, Tiger Woods, the Crimson Tide and Golden State Warriors. Arlie was an amazing storyteller and “people” person who will be missed dearly by all that knew him.
Arlie is survived by his daughters, Robin Weaver and husband, Jimmy of Phenix City, Alabama and Leigh-Ann Taylor of Dallas, Texas; grandchildren, Leslie Jackson and husband, A.J., Blake Lorentz, Allyson Weaver, Nicholas Stanger, and Kathryn Stanger; great-grandson, James Jackson; mother of his children, Landa Shaw of Dallas, Texas; several nieces and nephews that he adored teasing; and a host of other loving friends and colleagues.
“Aloha.”
Interment of ashes will be in Dallas-Ft. Worth National Cemetery in a private family memorial.