About Rose Gordon

Although not a celebrity like her famous brother, Taylor’s sister Rose Beatrice Gordon, 1883-1968, was a remarkable individual in her own right, a pioneer settler whose long residence in Montana began when the state was still a territory, a hardy western frontierswoman who was a lifelong hunter and fisherwoman and who purchased fishing and hunting licenses up until the age of 75 (at which age she registered two elk kills). During a period of time when black women in America were consistently denied a public role and a public voice, when the primary economic role for black women was considered to be as a domestic servant, Rose worked hard to establish her economic independence in the small, predominantly white town of White Sulphur Springs, operating her own restaurants (Kentucky Kitchen, Rose’s Cafe) into the 1940s, when she changed directions and began what became a thriving physical therapy business. In the segregated America of the twentieth century, Rose was a black businesswoman in a mostly white town, served as an officer in both business and religious organizations, and established herself as an important community voice (through, in part, regular newspaper columns) who became known as the “village historian” of White Sulphur Springs.