The San Francisco City Hall press room now officially bears the name of longtime KCBS Radio reporter Barbara Taylor.
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Taylor was remembered in a fitting ceremony at City Hall on Thursday, with room 247 renamed the "Barbara A. Taylor Press Room" in her honor. Mark Mayper, Taylor's husband, unveiled the sign.
"She was a combination of just incredible intelligence and toughness, but also just amazing kindness," he said of Taylor, who was known as "the dean of the City Hall press corps" during her decades covering San Francisco. "She had a big heart."
Taylor was a legend in the building that now honors her. She covered the big stories, reporting live on the assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.
Former San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos remembered the dogged questions she asked at press conferences.
"To borrow a word from the mayor, she was no bulls–t," Agnos said. "She really wanted the truth, and she could tell it when she heard it. And she was always in the front row of whatever the press conference was."
Agnos said younger reporters should look to her example to "understand what a real journalist is all about."
"This room would mean so much to her," former KCBS Radio Managing Editor Dory Culver said of Taylor. "She loved her job. She used to say over and over again, 'Can you imagine a better job than this? I can ask questions of everybody, and they will answer me!' "
Taylor, 73, died in 2020 following complications stemming from a car accident the previous year. Former Supervisor Bevan Duffy, Taylor's close friend, said Taylor knew this renaming was in the works before her death.
Supervisor Aaron Peskin introduced a resolution last year to rename the press room after Taylor. The ordinance passed unanimously last November.
The Barbara A. Taylor Press Room was packed during Thursday's renaming ceremony, and attendees stayed long after to share their memories of the former "dean."
"I miss her so much," Mayper said. "This would have been so moving to her."
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