Power Woman
One Oklahoma lady spends life on the lines
“Anything worth doing, is worth doing right.” Michelle Taylor’s favorite quote, and the principle that defi nes who she is.
By Anna Politano
riving through the countryside southwest of Duncan one sunny morning, I spotted a Cotton Electric truck on the side of an empty road. It was obvious I had found the crew I was searching for.
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There were five lineworkers. Four were on the ground by another truck; one was doing bucket work, installing a transformer – and wearing a pink Cotton Electric t-shirt. How appropriate. The one in pink was the lineman I was looking for
– Michelle Taylor – the only female lineman working for an electric cooperative in Oklahoma. In fact, on December 5, Michelle Taylor, 44, will celebrate her 20th anniversary as a lineman at Cot- ton Electric Co-op in southwest Oklahoma.
Life on the Ranch
Michelle was born in Lawton, Okla. During her childhood, she lived in Walters, Ardmore and Ring-
18 OKLAHOMA LIVING
ling, where she and her 11 siblings spent most of their childhood on the family’s ranch. In a band of eight brothers and three sisters, Michelle is the 11th of 12 children.
“I was raised with eight brothers, so I learned not to be scared of anything,” she said smiling. One thing is certain about Michelle: she is not scared of hard work. Michelle’s family owned a café in the town of Temple, and she and her siblings had to get up at 5 a.m. everyday to work at the café be- fore heading to school. On their lunch break, they would go back to the café to help wait tables, clean, and cook.
However, working at the café was never her favor- ite task. She wouldn’t trade a minute of working on the ranch with her brothers for working in the fam- ily’s eating junction. She recalls she was happy when her sisters could handle the work in the café and she could do ranch work.
“I enjoyed working on the ranch and helping feed the cows, hauling hay, and building fences,” she said, chuckling. “I also used to wrestle cows with
my brother; he would always win, but I never backed down. Those were good times. I would go back to them in a heartbeat.” Michelle graduated from Ringling High School in 1985 and attended one year at Northeastern Okla- homa A&M Junior College in Miami as an unde- cided major. It was around that time she entered the co-op electric industry.
Life on the Lines
After relocating again to Walters, she found out through word of mouth that Cotton Electric Co-op was hiring for a meter reader position. She applied and landed that job in 1990. But she was not satis- fi ed reading meters.
“I saw the linemen working and thought to myself ‘It’d be cool to do that!’ so as soon as there was an opening, I applied for it,” Michelle said. And, even though one of the requirements was a strenuous physical test, Michelle performed well and became an apprentice lineman at Cotton Elec- tric’s underground crew. At that time an apprentice
Photo courtesy of Karen Kaley/Cotton Electric Co-op
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