Sarah Taylor was born in Estill, South Carolina in 1943. At age eight, she moved to Brooklyn with her family and initially lived in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. Taylor has lived at a few Brooklyn addresses from childhood to adulthood, most prominently on Eastern Parkway, and in 1980, she moved to a home on St. Charles Place. She attended P.S. 44, 35 and 258, then Girls' High School, where she ran on the track team. Taylor's mother died while the young woman was still in high school, and taking a job became a greater priority than attending college. She first worked for the New York City Department of Social Services. After nine years, she left for a job with Shirley Chisholm's election campaign. She gave her time to The Muse museum in Brooklyn, and worked for many years at the Ford Foundation. She was retired as of 2010. She has been a leader of the Crow Hill Community Association for decades; taking the positions of Secretary, Vice President and a project manager.