Ann Elizabeth Taylor Gillett of Winter Park, Florida, died on August 7, 2026, with her family by her side. She was 84. The cause was complications from multiple myeloma, a disease she lived with for 14 years and met as she met everything, with determination and good humor.

Ann was born on May 25, 1942, in Winter Park to Elizabeth Fenn Taylor and William Jackson Taylor. She grew up there when the town was mostly orange groves and the end of the railroad line that carried northerners to sunny Florida before air travel was common.

She attended Miss Achenbach’s Open-Air Day School and Winter Park’s middle school and graduated from Winter Park High School (go Wildcats!) in 1960. She finished in the top ten of her class and was a member of the National Honor Society. She went on to Hollins College, where she earned a degree in economics in 1964.

While she was in college, a blind date introduced her to Jonathan Newell Gillett, a student at Washington and Lee University. They married on October 2, 1965, and were together for 57 years, until Jon’s death on December 24, 2022.

The newlyweds moved to New York City, where Jon’s family lived and where Ann went to work at Manufacturers Hanover. Ann and Jon raised their two daughters in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. In retirement they came home to Winter Park, where they lived with Ann’s mother.

Ann loved to laugh, and she believed a day without laughter was a day wasted. She never met a stranger. She was the life of every party, whether she was hosting it or attending it.

Music was a lifelong joy. She sang with the Humdingers in Montclair, New Jersey, and in her last years with Young at Heart in Winter Park. She also loved mystery novels, cooking, gardening, and traveling with her family and her “girlfriends.” The friendships she made with women throughout her life were a source of great joy and strength to her.

Ann was a fighter in every sense. She never gave up, and her lust for life stayed with her to the very end.

She is survived by her daughters Katherine Taylor Oddi (Kate) and Victoria (Tory) Newell Gillett; her son-in-law, Gaetano Oddi; her three grandchildren, Nicolas Jonathan Oddi (Nico), Kendall Elizabeth Oddi, and Ryan Victoria Oddi; and Tory’s partner, Jesper Grasjo. She was preceded in death by her husband, Jon; her parents; and her younger sister, Katherine Virginia Taylor.

A celebration of Ann’s life will be held at her home in Winter Park on Saturday, November 21, 2026. Please contact the family for details.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the American Cancer Society.

“The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.” ~Nicolas Chamfort