Nicole Taylor of country trio Taylor Red dies at 35

Nicole Taylor, who sang with her identical triplet sisters in the country group Taylor Red, died on September 28. She was 35 years old.

Natalie and Nika Taylor announced the death of their sister on their social media platforms on November 2. They shared that Nicole was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in 2022. She initially responded to treatment, but the cancer later progressed to stage 4.

In an emotional video posted to Instagram, the sisters explained how they “honestly thought she would be healed here on earth” before going into detail about their sister’s cancer journey.

“She fought fearlessly and she said we weren’t going to live in fear through all of this,” the sisters said. “She even did CrossFit while she was going through her chemotherapy treatments.”

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The sisters explained how her cancer progressed despite a good initial response to treatments. Ultimately, doctors gave him a three-month prognosis. She lived for another year.

“She tried not to live in fear. She had a lot of hope and traveled. She tried to have fun,” the sisters remember. “We are still in shock and didn’t think this would happen, but we know she is no longer in pain and we have God’s promise of ultimate healing,” the sisters said in concluding their announcement.

Nicole has spoken publicly about how her family helped her throughout her treatment. Her mother and sisters took her to chemotherapy and her brother trained with her several times a week, she said in an earlier video about his diagnosis⁠.

“She was our leader and our best friend. We are heartbroken, but we know she is in heaven and will see her again,” Natalie and Nika Taylor wrote in a tribute on the group’s website⁠.

Taylor Red found national success on TikTok

Some of the sisters’ first gigs were at fish fries in their Mississippi hometown. Their mother encouraged them to sing together, and their parents carried their instruments and drove them to performances.

“Soon we were playing 100 dates a year,” Nicole Taylor told People in 2021⁠.

During the pandemic, the sisters decided to create a TikTok account, and their success snowballed from there, reaching 13.4 million followers.

“Over the past year, TikTok has changed our world,” explained Nika Taylor. “It knocked down a lot of doors in an industry that we had spent years knocking on.”

Their single “Country Money” has attracted millions of views on the platform, according to the group’s website⁠.

The family held a private funeral and shared a memorial page for Samaritan’s Purse⁠, one of Nicole’s favorite charities.

This article was originally published on USA TODAY: Nicole Taylor of country trio Taylor Red dies at 35