Karen Elizabeth (Dill) Taylor

PEAKS ISLAND – Karen Elizabeth (Dill) Taylor passed away peacefully at her Peaks Island home on Sept. 1, 2025, following a long struggle with metastatic cancer. Known to all as “Kay”, she insisted on coming home from care on the mainland to spend her final days with the views she so loved.

Kay was born on Oct. 9, 1936 in Ferndale, Mich. to Jay Edwin Dill and Elizabeth Almira (Foster) Dill, followed 14 months later by brother, Robert. The Dill family eventually moved to rural Ontario, N.Y. where Kay attended Webster, N.Y. schools, graduating in 1954. She attended Bates College in Lewiston.

Following graduation from Bates with a degree in Spanish in 1958, and always the adventurer, Kay traveled to Madrid, Spain to pursue her master’s degree. There she met and married Carlos Peñalver in 1960. The young couple relocated to U.S. teaching jobs at the Chadwick School in Palos Verdes, Calif. where twins Elizabeth Maria and Juan Rafael were born in 1961. Another daughter, Marina Ilene, was born in 1965, following a move to work at the Wilbraham Academy in Massachusetts.

In 1969, the family moved to Spain so the kids would become fluent in Spanish and get to know their relatives there. In 1970, the family returned to live on the Ontario, N.Y. farm with Kay’s widowed dad. Kay taught Spanish and English as a Second Language in the Webster, N.Y. school district for 13 years while Carlos pursued a career at Eastman Kodak. Farm life let Kay indulge her lifelong passion for animals, with horses, dogs, cats, chickens and goats a part of daily life. When the marriage ultimately did not work out, Kay relocated to Maine to start the next chapter of her life that would last over 40 years.

Kay and Gene Taylor married in 1986. Upon settling at Gene’s family cottage on Peaks Island, Kay became an active member of the island. In addition to her work with the Peaks Island Health Center, Kay volunteered, joined clubs, tap danced, attended services and sang in the choir at the New Brackett Church. She had a horse or two on Peaks for almost 25 years, and was a familiar sight riding on island roads, or driving to the barn for daily chores.

Kay was predeceased by Gene Taylor, who passed in 2022.

She is survived by her dear brother, Robert P. Dill of NewCastle Del.; and by children, Lisa Peñalver, Marina Peñalver and her husband Doug Wilber, Juan and Meryl Peñalver, Brad and Sharon Taylor and Carol Taylor; as well as grandchildren; and great-grandchildren.

A memorial service at the New Brackett Church on Peaks Island will be held on Sept. 27, 11 a.m.

To see Kay’s full obituary, share a memory or leave the family an online condolence please visit http://www. athutchins.com

Kay asked that any donations be made to the

Peaks Island Fund (www.peaksislandfund.org)

which supports many worthy causes on the island so dear to her heart.