9053879449.jpg &&& WHEN W. WILSON Goode Sr. was working for an insurance company back in 1963, he met a remarkable woman named Nettie W. Taylor, who changed his life. Nettie was the wife of the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Paschall, in Southwest Philadelphia, and Goode was a member of the board of trustees. "She said to me, 'You really should be involved in the civic structure. You're not going to advance very far doing what you're doing,' " Goode said. "She facilitated getting me an interview with the Philadelphia Council for Community Advancement and they hired me. I never looked back." The rest, as they say, is history. Eighteen years later, Goode was sworn in as the city's first African-American mayor. "She had unusual gifts and talent for helping others, embracing those who were downtrodden," Goode said. "She had an uncanny ability to talk to the president of a bank and communicate with someone who was homeless. You never saw any difference in her expression. "She had unique communication skills and a stately presence about her. She made people believe in her." Nettie Taylor, a retired executive of the former Bell of Pennsylvania and a woman who devoted her life to helping those less fortunate and young people trying to find their place in the world, died Thursday. She was 92 and was living in Merion but had lived many years in West Philadelphia. Nettie, a native of Cincinnati, came to Philadelphia as the wife of the Rev. Samuel L. Taylor, who was installed as pastor of First Baptist Church of Paschall in June 1963. Her first involvement in the community was as deputy executive director of the North City Congress, where she set about establishing links with the city's "movers and shakers" to help her impoverished community. Those connections also came in handy when she and her husband decided to build a church. They received a grant for the planning process and the new edifice at 71st Street and Woodland Avenue was dedicated in April 1973. After the death of her husband, she led the effort to liquidate the mortgage and in March 1982, the church burned the mortgage. Nettie started with Bell of Pennsylvania, now Verizon, in 1979. She worked directly for the president and later became its government-relations manager. She retired in 1995. Nettie was the eldest of nine children of George and Daisy Wolfe. She attended Miami University of Ohio and began her dedication to helping others before she arrived in Philadelphia. She worked with Butler County Social Services and Aid to Dependent Children in Ohio for 20 years. She then moved to Washington, D.C., to become an administrator with the Peace Corps. There she met Taylor. They were married on June 21, 1963, and moved to Philadelphia. She had her own career wardrobe program, in which she shared some of her business suits with promising young professionals. She was also managing caretaker and executor for many senior members of the church. In the '70s, she became active with Links Inc., the national organization for African-American women involved in their communities. She was a charter member of the Penn Towne Chapter. Among its programs was Project S.E.E. (Screen Eyes Every Year) to guard against glaucoma. "The city has lost a gem in this great city of many jewels," Wilson Goode said. She is survived by two sons, Michael and Reginald Whiteside; two sisters, Juanita Miller and Dianne Henderson; a brother, Robert Wolfe; four grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. Services: 11 a.m. Thursday at First Baptist Church of Paschall, 71st Street and Woodland Avenue. Friends may call at 10 a.m. Burial will be in Valley Forge Memorial Gardens, King of Prussia. *