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Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, DBE, 79, lost her fight for life yesterday in the same hospital where she was admittednike running shoes  just over five weeks ago for symptoms of the congestive heart failure that took her life.  In 2009, the star had heart surgery to repair a valve, and was quoted afterwards: “It’s like having a brand new ticker.”   As we mourn this dear champions' passing, it's bittersweet comfort to know that Taylor has been quoted as saying, that she wanted her tombstone to read: "She lived."  Literally, she did just that.

Elizabeth Taylor was born on February 27th, 1932 in London, the second child of Francis Lenn Taylor (1897–1968) an art dealer and Sara Viola Warmbrodt (1895–1994), an actress whose stage name was "Sara Sothern".  At the time, they were Americans residing in England.  

According to Wichita NBC affiliate, KSN News, several years before baby Elizabeth's arrival, Francis and Sara hailed from Arkansas City, Kansas, where they met.  Sara retired from the acting stage when she and Francis moved to New York City to be married in 1926.  Within a few years of their marriage, Mr.Taylor was transferred to Howard Young's art gallery in London, England, where he and Sara began their family, living there until the outbreak of Britain's involvement in World War II.  

They then returned to the United States, living for a short time with Elizabeth's grandparents at 310 N. A Street in Arkansas City allowing Elizabeth and her brother, Howard, to briefly attend school at Roosevelt Elementary.  Her parents and all of her grandparents were from Ark City.  According to Heather Ferguson, 2011 nike running shoes the director of the Cherokee Strip Land Rush Museum in Arkansas City, "That's about all we know...", adding, "This is a little known fact to most of Taylor's fans".

Following the brief layover in Ark City, Kansas in 1939, after Taylor's father wrapped up matters in the art business in London, seven months later the family of four settled in Los Angeles, California, where Sara's family, the Warmbrodts, were then living.

A dual citizen of the United Kingdom and the United States, Elizabeth Taylor was born a British subject through her birth on British soil and an American citizen through her parents.  She reportedly sought, in 1965, to renounce her United States citizenship, to wit: "Though never accepted by the State Department, Liz renounced in 1965.  Attempting to shield much of her European income from U.S. taxes, Liz wished to become solely a British citizen.

“We don’t have pictures or anything like that because at the time they didn’t have yearbooks like we do today", says Ferguson.  She suspects Taylor never spoke much about her Kansas roots because it wasn’t as glamorous as being from
London.  The big screen star was invited back to Arkansas City several times by local leaders but always refused the invites.

Elizabeth Taylor was a British-born American actress.  She was a dynamic child star that eventually evolved out of old Hollywood glamour and beauty to continue her silver screen status as one of the most beautiful actresses to date. To her fans, her much publicized private life seemed like an extention of their own, not caring that she weathered countless health scares and eight marriages.  Her public saw throughshipping. buy Reebok EasyTone the Hollywood enigma and found a true champion who stood up and was an advocate for AIDS awareness, hoping to garner some attention to prevention and eventually a cure.  All of this social activism, when it was taboo!   She won two Academy Awards for Best Actress and was considered, by most, as one of the greatest screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age.  On the American Film Institute "Female Legends List", Elizabeth Taylor is number seven!     

Even Dame Elizabeth understood the need for having a relationship with her creator, making these statements, "I'm not worried about dying.  I consult with God, My Maker.  And, I don't have a lot problems to work out.  I'm pretty squared away.  It is bad enough that people are dying of AIDS, but no one should die of ignorance".