Sarah Miriam Hecht

Sarah Miriam Hecht Taggert is the mother of Roger Wilson Taggart and wife of Lieutenant Oliver Owen Taggert.

Summary

Sarah Miriam Hecht was born on 4 August, 1930 in St. Anthony Hospital, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

In 1949, Sarah married Lieutenant John Robert Taggert, US Army, from Stillwater, Oklahoma. John was from a wealthy family and had just finished up his degree at Oklahoma state as part of an officer program.

In June of 1951, Sarah and John conceived a child, shortly before John was shipped out to the conflict in Korea in August of that same year.

In January of 1952, Sarah received news that John had been killed in the fighting, leaving her a twenty-two year old, pregnant widow.

In February of 1952, Sarah gave birth to an underweight son she named Roger Wilson Taggert, after her late husband's father and the former president Wilson.

Sarah raised Roger alone and never remarried. In 1963, when Roger was 11 years old, he began exhibiting very strange behavior and Sarah had him evaluated by a psychiatrist. Roger's behavior and emotional state were considered potentially dangerous to himself and over the course of his treatment he came very close to committing suicide. Sarah began drinking at this time and found it difficult to cope with her son's behavior.

By 1966, Roger had left most of that odd behavior behind, but Sarah's relationship with him had become strained, in part because of her increasing alcoholism.

In 1970, when Roger became eligible for the draft, Sarah made sure he was enrolled in college at the University of Michigan and that his record of psychological instability was used to prevent his selection for the Vietnam conflict. Sarah's family was reasonably well connected to state politics and this helped secure Roger's exemption from the war.

In 1984, Sarah's drinking finally caught up with her and she was diagnosed with advanced liver disease. Unable to control her alcoholism, Sarah succumbed to the disease in January of 1985.