Keturah Leitch Taylor Harris
Covington Journal, October 28, 1871, page 2
Obituary
"Blessed are the dead which died in the Lord"
Mrs. Keturah Leitch Harris, wife of the late Major H T Harris and eldest daughter of the late General James Taylor, died at her residence in the city of Newport on Friday October 20, 1871.
She was born the twin sister of her brother, Colonel James Taylor, on her father's estate Bellevue, now within the limits of the city, on the 9th day of August 1802. If in death to be deplored by young and old of all classes of the society of which we move is a virtuous aspiration of the living, it should be the ambition of all to afford such an example as now crowns the life of this much loved and venerable lady. Her deed of praise is now recorded from every lip. The rich and the poor, the high and the low, pay equal homage at her shrine. Her immediate family and friends now realize the loss of that firm and ever ready support, and he poor, especially in their sorest distress will miss that benevolent heart and ever dispensing hand.
Born in the earliest period of Western Civilization, Mrs. Harris, in all the varied phases of her life, was a true model of feminine courage, self-reliance, endurance and that matter of fact absolute character instilled by the hardy honest pioneers who came out from Virginia out to settle Kentucky and the great West. No more real character ever lived than she. They was no guile in her nature. She was true to the God who made her. No change of fortune or fashion or modes of life could ever affect the ostentations, sterling integrity which adorned her character and was manifest in all the acts of her life.
Of naturally of a pious disposition, early in life she unified herself with the Baptist Church and has ever since been one of its most zealous and steadfast members. Christian faith seems to have been the pervading passion of her life. It amounted to an enthusiasm with which all who knew her are familiar. Her Christianity, too was of the broadest philanthropy. Although a devoted supporter of her own church, she aided all and there was seldom an offering for the benefit of other churches in which she was not one of the largest contributors.
She was the dispenser of true benevolence, the
fast and ever lasting friend of the poor; and this was the chief beauty and
glory of her life. New evidence of this new Christian virtue, not that she is
but one day dead, are springing into life and to the knowledge of her family, of
which she never spoke and they knew not before. The hand that doeth secret alms
is the purest offering to God.
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Keturah Leitch Taylor Harris Headstone in Evergreen Cemetery