Taylor Terrell wanted to celebrate her upcoming birthday in the North Carolina mountains with a close friend.
The 24-year-old, who anchored the 41NBC News at Daybreak and 41Today in Macon, was an avid hiker and loved the outdoors.
The getaway wasn’t long in the planning, but that was Taylor Terrell. She loved being spontaneous.
She also loved the outdoors. The night before they left, she was so excited “she was on fire,” said her father, Louis Terrell, of Rockdale County. “She would get excited about everything. She would get excited about the movies.”
The youngest of four children, Taylor Terrell would have turned 25 on Friday, the day after her death.
Terrell was wading in the stream above but some distance away from the edge of Rainbow Falls when she lost her footing and was swept over the falls by the current, according to news reports and officials.
Her mother, Quovardis Terrell, said the family had initially planned to celebrate her daughter's birthday in San Francisco.
However, Taylor Terrell wanted to attend the National Association of Black Journalists meeting in Washington, D.C. in August. The two big trips would have been too close together, so they decided to postpone San Francisco until the fall.
As an alternative, Taylor Terrell said she would go to the mountains.
Taylor Terrell graduated from Heritage High School in 2009 and, later, Georgia Southern University. After graduation, she started at 41NBC as an intern.
She loved to play tennis and was a cheerleader and homecoming queen in high school.
“We supported her in everything she did,” said her father. “She had me out to every ball game there was. Basketball. Football.”
Her mother used to drill into Taylor Terrell how important it was to care for others. She used to tell her that beauty was only skin deep. That it was the beauty inside that counted most and her daughter took that advice to heart.
"Her friends and the people she met were always more important than her," said Louis Terrell. "She was a loving person."
She volunteered at several nonprofits around town including Habitat for Humanity.
Her mother recalled the time the family was traveling through Macon on their way to Savannah. Taylor Terrell was already working at the station. Her mother needed to make copies and she suggested they go to a nearby library. Her daughter spotted a homeless woman, someone she had seen before.
She excused herself and ran home. When she returned she had bananas and granola bars. The woman had disappeared, but Taylor Terrell left the food there anyway.
“It touched me so much,” her mother said. They didn’t discuss her act of generosity.
They didn’t have to. That was simply Taylor Terrell.
Her parents made it a habit to watch her broadcasts online or on their mobile phones. Her mother would sometimes critique her work, but her father could tell Taylor appreciated it.
A couple of weeks ago she told her parents how much she had always like their support.
The day she died, Louis Terrell started to tell his daughter goodbye. He figured, though, that she was still in bed and didn’t want to disturb her. He eased out of the house. Later that day, she sent her best friend a video on which she and her other friend at the park, laughing and having fun.
Later police told her parents that she had been in a terrible accident and was gone.
“It hurt me,” he said. “She had so much to live for….She was my baby. I really miss her.”
Services for Taylor Terrell are scheduled for noon on Saturday at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, 6400 Woodrow Rd. in Lithonia.
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