Elaine Doris (Tucker) Taylor, 87, of Barrington, died peacefully at home Friday, Feb. 17, 2017. She grew up in Brookline, Mass., daughter of the late Carle Thornton and Adeline (Brownell) Tucker. Her only sibling was a sister, Barbara Tucker, who died in 1928, aged 3, a year before Elaine was born. 

Elaine graduated from Radcliffe College in 1951, and was married to Marvin Hunter Taylor from 1955 until his death in 2014. She lived in Cambridge, then Lexington, Mass., before moving to Barrington in 1984. 

Before the birth of her first son she worked at the Dewey & Almy Chemical Company in Cambridge. In the 1980s, after her sons had grown, she worked for the American Society of Plant Physiology at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., and returned to school, earning a certificate of advanced study in history from Harvard University in 1986. 

Throughout her life Elaine was a voracious reader, occasional writer and painter, and keen observer. 

She is survived by her two sons, Marvin Hunter Taylor of Gelsenkirchen, Germany, and Nathaniel Lane Taylor of Barrington, daughter-in-law Julie Scott Taylor, and four grandchildren, Cassandra, Harrison, Amelia, and Simon Taylor, all of Barrington, with whom she had lived since 2011.