BOISE, Idaho — Madelynn Lee Taylor, a United States Navy veteran and well-known LGBTQIA+ activist, passed away at 81 years old in early April. After years of fighting to ensure she could be interred next to her wife, her dream is finally becoming a reality.
At just 18 years old, Taylor joined the Navy as just one of the many accomplishments she hoped to achieve in her lifetime.
"She always was a take-charge kind of person, and she has always achieved, you know, anything she set out to do," said Karen Hicks, Taylor's sister. "She was many people all wrapped into one. There wasn't a day where Madlynn wasn't busy and active or doing some sort of project."
For six years, Taylor served in the Navy with varied technical positions within the space program. Many people, however, may remember her by her dedication and commitment to Idaho's LGBTQIA+ community.
"With this large of a family we had, Madelyn was not the only one that was in that particular community," Hicks said. "There was a couple of others so we understand what she was fighting for and we knew she would never give up."
When Taylor's wife, Jean Mixner, passed away in 2012, she began preparing for her own death. As a veteran in good standing, she was eligible to be buried or interred at the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery and wanted her wife to be put to rest next to her.
However, Idaho's same-sex marriage laws prohibited that from happening.
Taylor filed a lawsuit against the Idaho Dept. of Veteran Affairs in 2013 so she could be buried with her late wife. Her request was ultimately denied due to Idaho's ban against same-sex marriage.
The next year, Idaho's 9th Circuit Court of Appeal ruled the state's ban unconstitutional. Therefore, Taylor and her wife would be interred together.
Not only did she fight to be laid to rest with her wife, but Taylor also changed the law for generations to come.
"She had been arrested several times but she didn't care," Hicks said. "She had something she was fighting for. She wanted it done and it got done."
While Taylor was a fighter until the very end, she never lost her sense of humor and zest for life, according to Hicks.
"When I looked at her pictures, trying to figure out what to put together, every one of them she was laughing, or smiling or cracking a joke," she said. "She loved life that's the way she was. The people in Boise will remember she did so much for them. She was just tired, she's done, she did her job."
Taylor's family is still working out arrangements for funeral services that will take place at the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery. There will be a public memorial on Saturday, May 1 at 3 p.m. at the Anne Frank Memorial in downtown Boise.
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