San Diego-born Barbara Taylor received a bachelor’s degree in speech communication and a master’s in counseling from San Diego State University. After college, she worked briefly as a social worker.
She changed careers, starting with a job in radio news in San Diego Taylor joined KCBS on the editor’s desk in 1975 and was soon promoted to a reporter’s position.
Specializing in politics, Taylor was the KCBS San Francisco City Hall Bureau Chief for over thirty years before retiring in 2015.
Taylor’s career included coverage of the Jonestown massacre and the assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. Her coverage of City Hall killings was immortalized in the 2008 Academy Award-winning film “Milk.” She covered six national presidential elections and was part of the KCBS team that won the Edward R. Murrow award as the “Top Radio News Station” in 2012.
Barbara Taylor died in 2020 at the age of 73.