The pastor of the Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Hollister, North Carolina is Rev. Linda H. Taybron. She married the honorable Deacon Haywood Taybron, Jr. on September 25, 1971. God has blessed them to have five magnificent children. Their daughters are Jessie, Kristi and Nicole. Their sons are Joseph and the late Haywood III. God has also blessed them with a great son-in-law, Brad Richardson and a wonderful daughter-in-law, Paula Taybron. God has blessed them with ten grandchildren, Malichi, Nehemiah, Isaiah, Damian, Naomi, Jesse, Joshua, Johanna, Matthew and the youngest, Zoe.

   Pastor Taybron was born November 25, 1952 to the late Deacon Jessie Jr. and Deaconess Ruth Hedgepeth. The oldest of four children, she has two sisters, Lorraine Williams and the late Diane Mabry and one brother, the late Junior Earl Hedgepeth. Since September 25, 1971 she has been the daugher-in-law of the late Haywood Sr. and the late Bertha Taybron.

   At eight years of age, Pastor Taybron joined the Philadelphia Baptist Church. There she enjoyed singing in the choirs and even formed a Junior Choir. In 1977 she joined the Pleasant Grove Baptist Church and became the director of Pleasant Grove's Junior Choir until she became an ordained minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

   In 1996 she became the Assistant Pastor of Pleasant Grove Baptist Church. She began serving as an acting pastor in September of 1998 and was officially elected pastor in January 2000. Pastor Taybron believes in studying to rightly divide the word of God; to believe it, to teach it, preach it, and live it. She enjoys going to visit and pray with the sick, shut-in and bound as another way to share God's love to those she loves.

   Pastor Taybron's early education was with the G.W. Bulluck Elementay School, G.W.Carver High School and she is a graduate of West Edgecomb High School. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Shaw University in Raleigh, N. C. with a B.A. Degree in Education.

    For 13 years she was Handicap Coordinator/Teacher for NEED, Inc. Headstart. She retired from Nash-Rocky Mount Schools where she was and elementary teacher.    She is now a former Moderator of Reedy Creek Missionary Baptist Association. She was the first female moderator of the Reedy Creek Missionary Baptist Association and served two consecutive terms.    Pastor Taybron desires to please God. She not only confesses that the Lord Jesus is her Savior but, that God is her everything. "He is my life, my joy, my all." One of her favorite Bible verses is Psolm 34:4, "Delight thyself also in the LORD, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart."