Willard Carl "Bill" Taylor, a popular morning radio and TV personality in Orlando in the 1960s and early 1970s, has died at 92. He left WDBO radio and Channel 6 TV in 1972 to return to his native North Carolina to manage then-WBT-FM in Charlotte. After his 30-year career in broadcasting, he opened a real estate brokerage and construction business in North Carolina, building dozens of custom log homes around Lake Norman. Taylor missed Central Florida, though, and he returned to retire and to wed a onetime neighbor, Orlando native Ethel Parker Creson. They observed their 30 ^th wedding anniversary last Spring, and most recently resided in Clermont. The picture shown here is Bill Taylor, at his 90 ^th birthday party.

One of the things Bill enjoyed most about Central Florida was the wide-open skies – he was a 45-year private pilot and aircraft builder, and an enthusiastic member of Orlando's Chapter 74 of the Experimental Aircraft Association.

Survivors include Bill's beloved wife Ethel, with whom he attended services at the Clermont chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Also surviving are Bill's son Tom Taylor (who followed Bill into the broadcasting business) and his wife Sharan, of Ewing, NJ. Daughter Denise Taylor Malmberg (retired from Wells Fargo Insurance Services) and her husband Carl, of Lake Wylie, SC. Denise's two daughters - Abigail "Abby" Alley, a former South Carolina sheriff and currently a nursing student, and Sarah Bacon of Hillsboro, Oregon, who works with Wells Fargo. (In the next generation, there's also Abby's daughter Adrianna Grace Blackmon, who like her mother lives in Clover, SC.)

Surviving family in Florida includes Bill's daughter-in-law Linda Creson of Montverde. (Linda's late husband Jeff Creson was the principal of Auto Electric Co. of Winter Garden.) Granddaughter Jennifer Creson Riffle and her husband Bob Riffle, of Groveland. Their daughters Bayleigh and Gracey. And grandson Zachary Creson of Stuart, Florida.

Bill Taylor was predeceased by his first two wives, Armada Brown Taylor Nelson of Hickory, NC and Barbara Stokes Taylor of Orlando.

While at Outlet Broadcasting in the 1960s, Taylor sometimes hosted a late-morning live TV show at then co-owned WDBO-TV/Channel 6. He particularly relished filling in for a friend who hosted the "Uncle Walt" afternoon kids program. Over his career, Taylor estimated that he'd interviewed more than 6,000 people – and never felt stage fright. He attributed that to his early exposure to show business, as part of a country music act with his father and older brother Ralph that was featured on their hometown station in Hickory, NC. (Bill Taylor's favorite instrument was the mandolin.)

Taylor's prominence in radio opened up other opportunities, such as emceeing air shows and beauty pageants, and even donning an Air Force uniform to film training videos. Sometimes he was able to combine two of his passions, such as when he took to the skies to offer live traffic reports on the opening day of Disney World in 1971. He'd previously been treated to a Jeep ride over the swampy site of the future Magic Kingdom with General Joe Potter, who oversaw the park's construction.

Bill Taylor's family thanks his recent caregivers at South Lake Hospital in Clermont, Health Central Hospital in Ocoee, Winter Garden Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, and the hospice specialists at Vitas Healthcare.