Noblesville Author Draws From Noble Family Values

Rhonda Parker Taylor wanted to write a book to prove to herself that she could.

For many, like Parker Taylor, writing is a difficult task.

Growing up, she wasn’t a good student in English, reading or writing. She struggled with McGuffey Readers. And the phonetic concepts escaped her as a child.

But she was still drawn to books, mostly encyclopedias, where she could read about the world, daring young women and journeys away from her small hometown of Noblesville.

So, writing became about telling a story that was within her.

And that’s what she did in her book, “Crossroads,” a suspense novel set in Indianapolis in the early 2000s and released earlier this year. The story is a journey into the life of fictional character, Paris Pennington, a powerhouse in the financial community who is forced to fulfill her civic duty and be a juror in a murder trial involving the death of a 15-year-old. But when Pennington takes the job as the jury foreman, whose name is mistakenly made public, her life begins to be picked apart as people around her start dying. Parker Taylor said she had an idea for the plot before she started writing, and she chose the scene of the crime, too. “I had Chapter One ingrained in my head. All I had to do was write it down. I worry about the mechanics after I get the story and dialogue crafted,” she said.

Parker Taylor, whose book is endorsed by Golden Globe-nominated actress Mariel Hemingway, will sign copies this Saturday in Chicago and locally, on June 24, at the Barnes and Noble at River Crossing in Indianapolis.

The book is the product of “passion, determination and commitment,” she said. “It took me a year to write and 20 years to introduce it.” Yes, she wrote the book in 2000 but finally got it published this year.

This column is about her life that inspired her to write the book.

She was born in Noblesville in 1964 and will turn 59 this fall. She is the second youngest of five children, the daughter of the late William and Anita Parker, who founded a steel manufacturing company that we know today as Noble Industries. Her sister, Brenda Parker, her best friend, is executive vice president of Noble Industries. Her brother, Gary Parker, is executive consultant of manufacturing. And her brother, Greg Parker, is president of Noble Industries.

Parker Taylor spent her childhood in a two-story home surrounded by cornfields and cows in the Craig Highlands neighborhood, attended Prairie Baptist Church and Heritage Christian School, from where she graduated in 1983.

Through Noble Industries and her parents’ entrepreneurial spirit, the Parkers learned to dedicate themselves to work, family and community. All of the Parker children, she said, were taught to work hard. Most of the kids gained their job experience by working at Noble Industries or for grandparents, Kenneth and Louis (Marrow) Hanna’s Ken-Lo Cafeteria (839 Conner St., where NobleMade gift shop is today, according to Hamilton County historian David Heighway).

Here’s just a little more background about her family. Her grandfather, Julian Hanna, born in 1871, was a Noblesville physician specializing in eyes, ears, noses and throats. But before that, he was a schoolteacher in Clarksville. He wanted to go to medical school, so the local farmers took up a collection and sent him to Indiana University, and his wife, Pella, took in laundry to help him pay his way. Parker Taylor’s kin are the Bakers and Marrows found in the Quaker records in the Westfield Public Library.

Parker Taylor’s first job was bagging plastic furniture feet while watching TV and bending steel and working a punch press at Noble Industries (which was started in 1968, making metal aquarium stands part time in a 300-square-foot barn, founded in 1969 and incorporated in 1970, and has since grown to 60 employees and a 110,000-square-foot facility). During high school, she worked at Payless Shoes and Arby’s in Noblesville.

After graduating high school, she earned a certification in 1984 in Fashion Merchandising in Bauder College, Arlington, Texas. Then, she returned to Indiana.

Then several years later, she decided to go back to school.

In 2000, she earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Science Management; in 2004, a master’s of Business Administration from Indiana Wesleyan University; and in 2010, a doctorate in Management and Leadership from University of Phoenix. (In her career, she has mentored students and young professionals, was a National College campus director and professor, co-director of an advertising agency and worked for a student loan management company. In between, she worked in the human resources department of Noble Industries. Currently, she is director of operations for Intelligent Solutions training, developing, academic research and business writing services)

Her writing started through academics. “I was a business student who had to write paper after paper.”

After writing her book, a publisher in 2000 backed out of a deal with her because she wasn’t interested in the business part of the industry.

Brenda Parker asked her sister: “What are you afraid of?” Her sister said, “For it to succeed, you must make yourself vulnerable to disappointment.” So Parker Taylor started looking for another publisher who also assisted with the marketing. MindStir and Seacoast walked her through much of the process.

Her two family mottos: “If it is meant to be, it is up to me,” and “Every day is great.”

She has stuck with those mottos.

Writing, for Parker Taylor, is about telling a story with a lesson learned. In “Crossroads,” she used Proverbs’ lessons on anger, fury and envy as the motivations for the crime.

After her book was finally published, her first book signing couldn’t have gone better. “I was blessed by so many people coming out to support me and the book,” she said. “I can’t wait to host another one. What I loved about the book signing was it was a time to socialize and fellowship with like-minded people.”

Her next signing is 2-4 p.m. Saturday at the Barnes and Noble in Skokie (Chicago), Ill. The next local signing is 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. June 24 at Barnes and Noble at The Shops at River Crossing, 8675 River Crossing Blvd., Indianapolis. She’s also done at least three podcasts about the book.

While she loves to travel, to cook and all things outdoors, writing a book has always been on her bucket list.

What makes her smile is “life and people.”

She is inspired by her family and good friends, creating characters like them in her book. “I’ve been lucky to have lifelong friends that push me to be a better person and to live to my full potential,” Parker Taylor said.

She has great support from her spouse, Dana Taylor. “My husband assists me in staying in balance because, much like the main protagonist in ‘Crossroads,’ I tend to be a workaholic.”

Remember when Parker Taylor shared how she struggled academically in school? Well, she had a special Heritage Christian School teacher, Mrs. Donley, who offered to tutor her over the summer between her junior and senior years. “At the end of the summer, I offered to pay her for the tutoring from the money I made working at Arby’s. She would not take a dime. I passed the test. Without her, none of this would have ever happened to me.”

Want TO GO?

What: Noblesville resident Rhonda Parker Taylor will sign copies of her suspense novel, “Crossroads.”

When: 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. June 24.

Where: Barnes and Noble at The Shops at River Crossing, 8675 River Crossing Blvd., Indianapolis.

What else: Signing also 2-4 p.m. this Saturday at the Barnes and Noble in Skokie (Chicago), Ill.

Where to find more info: https://rhondaparkertaylor.com/

-Betsy Reason writes about people, places and places in Hamilton County. Contact The Times Editor Betsy Reason at [email protected].