Mooshe Taylor

Mooshe Taylor, born Marsha Lynn Jacobs, passed away peacefully in her sleep on May 28, 2026, at the age of 88 in Devon, Pennsylvania. She was born in 1938 in Washington, D.C., to Selma Lavenstein Jacobs and Leonard William Jacobs.

Mooshe attended Wheaton College and later earned a Master of Arts in writing from American University. Her late husband, the celebrated poet Henry Splawn Taylor, captured something essential about her in a dedication from his collection This Tilted World Is Where I Live: New and Selected Poems, 1962–2020: “I love how you speak to strangers on the phone, listening for the way to where they are, so you can make that space a safety zone from which no understanding seems too far. You praise the beauty of a checkout girl while I stand wondering which way to look as the checker blushes and flicks back a curl."

Mooshe was a gifted and accomplished fiber artist. She could knit virtually anything, and her talents extended to sewing, crocheting, quilting, needlepoint, and creating works of all kinds from fabric and yarn. She was an avid and devoted reader throughout her life. She loved dogs deeply and had many beloved companions over the years. A skilled cook, she brought care and creativity to the table as she did to everything she made with her hands.

She lived for many years in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she treasured the sight of the snow-capped mountains. A woman connected to the natural world, she believed deeply in the healing power of nature and lived accordingly.

Mooshe is preceded in death by her parents, Selma and Leonard Jacobs, and her husband, Henry Taylor. She is survived by her brother, Benjamin Richard Jacobs of Bethesda, Maryland, her six children: Amanda Henkin Lemar, Michael Henkin, David Henkin, Joshua Henkin, Elizabeth (nee Henkin) Field (David Field), and Hannah Henkin, and her thirteen grandchildren: Lee, Mimi, and Sammy Lemar, Helmi and Julius Henkin, Kerra Jones and Bradley Henkin, Harrison and William Field, Nora, Nicholas and Maleah Donohew, and Mason Hughes.

Mooshe will be cremated. Her ashes will be laid to rest alongside her late husband, Henry Splawn Taylor, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the place they both loved and called home.