Jackson Free Press

Patricia Taylor drove a friend to take a postal service exam in 1980. Giving that friend a ride started a career for Taylor when she decided she wanted to take the test, too. A couple of weeks later, she got a phone call and landed a job with the U.S. Postal Service in Jackson.

"I was a street carrier for three years," Taylor told the Jackson Free Press. "Then I went into management."

Taylor started her new position in September. Friends, family, sisters from Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. and USPS employees witnessed her formal installation service Friday.

"It was very well attended," she said.

Her USPS career has included being the acting postmaster in Pascagoula and stints as postmaster in Ridgeland, Canton and, most recently, Vicksburg. Now, she returns to Jackson to oversee 13 units, a computer forwarding system, a collections office and about 300 employees.

Taylor grew up in Olive Branch. She studied biology at JSU and graduated in 1980.

She's married to Jeff Taylor, who works arson cases for the Jackson Fire Department. They have three children: Jasmine Taylor Rudd, 28, who teaches second grade at Smith Elementary School; Jamille Taylor, 25, who is a medical student at Brown University and also working on a graduate degree in pediatrics at Yale University; and Jeffrey Taylor II, 21, who is a junior at Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he is layout editor of the college newspaper.