ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Her older brother, who died in 1986, was a longtime downtown merchant, philanthropist.

As the world mourns former first lady Claudia Taylor (Lady Bird) Johnson, who died Wednesday at the age of 94, folks who've been in Santa Fe a while may remember her older brother, Antonio (Tony) Taylor, who was, according to stories in the Albuquerque Journal's archives, a longtime downtown merchant, world traveler, local philanthropist and all-around colorful character.

Taylor died in 1986 following heart surgery at St. Vincent Hospital, just two days after his 82nd birthday, the Journal reported at the time.

Born in Karnack, Texas, which is near the Louisiana state line, Taylor first came to New Mexico in 1918 as a student at the old Los Alamos Ranch School for Boys.

He built the original Old Mexico Shop on Water Street across from the old bus station in Santa Fe, and later moved it to Galisteo Street, the Journal reported.

"He was something of a pioneer in the import business," his grandson Alex Tschursin, who took over the family business which was renamed Foreign Traders Inc., told the Journal at the time. "He was interested in experiencing all sorts of different lifestyles."

Tschursin told the Journal that when his grandfather would travel throughout Mexico looking for merchandise "he didn't go to luxury hotels and sip margaritas by the pool. He'd sleep in people's barns with the burros."

On one early trip to Mexico, Tschursin recalled, Taylor caught smallpox, collapsed in the street of a small Mexican town where a family picked him up and kept him in their house for about 40 days while he recovered, the Journal reported.

Taylor, who was fluent in Spanish, was named by his brother-in-law, then-President Lyndon B. Johnson as an honorary vice consul to Spain and served as a translator in talks between Johnson and then-Mexican President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz when a new Rio Grande channel was dedicated between El Paso and Juarez in 1968.

Back home in Santa Fe, Taylor was known for leaving his dogs tied up in front of the Plaza Cafe where he frequently ate breakfast and would pass out silver dollars to children on the street or greet his friends with a Santa Claus-like "Ho, ho, ho," the Journal reported.

He'd let children from the old St. Vincent Orphanage pick out new shoes each year at Christmastime, and while he was president of the Fiesta Council in 1940, he bailed a mariachi band he'd brought up from Mexico out of the drunk tank, according to the old stories.

Lady Bird Johnson frequently visited her brother in Santa Fe, according to other reports.

Antonio Taylor