Yellow.
That’s how Brandi Taylor described Rebecca Rauber to an audience of over 60 at a prayer service held at Emporia Church of Christ Monday evening.
It wasn’t just her favorite color. She simply embodied it.
“She was a bright and happy human,” said Taylor, who taught second-grade with Rauber at Riverside Elementary.
A two-time graduate of Emporia State, Rauber went missing Friday, Jan. 23 after leaving Town Royal, a local bar on Commercial Street, around 11:30 p.m. After an extensive two-day search that saw a winter storm and sub-zero temperatures, authorities discovered Rauber’s body in a wooded area just 300 yards south of where video last captured her on West Fourth Avenue.
“A lot of people asked us if we would still do this, if we would gather together tonight and pray,” Neil Taylor, minister at Emporia Church of Christ and Brandi Taylor’s husband, said in his opening remarks. The couple had initially organized the event to pray for Rauber during search efforts.
“And without hesitation we both said yes, because now just as much as ever, prayers are needed.”
The somber service meshed scripture and prayers with warm memories of a daughter, partner, sister, teacher and friend “gone far too soon.” Faculty and staff from Riverside Elementary and members of Rauber’s family filled the front pews of the sanctuary, and women from the ESU Chi Omega chapter sat together in remembrance of the sorority alumna. Community members poured into the church well after the 5 p.m. service began to honor a beloved teacher with a deep impact.
“It is okay to grieve in whatever form you need to. If you are sad, if you are angry, if your heart is cut with pain you can’t even express, it is okay,” said Neil Taylor, standing at the pulpit in a yellow shirt and bright yellow Nike sneakers. “None of us expected we would be here.”
A passionate teacher who ‘just loved everybody’
Even outside of work, Rauber surrounded herself with school. Whether it was earning her master’s degree in instructional specialist from ESU, taking a class or something else, she never strayed far from learning.
But Rauber’s passion for teaching was “undeniable.”
“It was her purpose, and she knew it,” Brandi Taylor said.
Rauber began teaching at Riverside Elementary in 2020, just months after graduating from ESU with two bachelor’s degrees: one in elementary education and another in modern languages with a Spanish concentration.
Brandi Taylor spoke of the “kindest” and “happiest” soul she got to know, a friend who let “everything just kind of (roll) off her back” unbothered. Neil Taylor spoke of the smile always on her face and memories of Rauber in her yellow convertible. On occasion, she’d come to the couples home with music blasting from the stereo, the top of her car down as she pulled into the driveway.
“It was a joy, I loved it,” he said.
The second-grade teacher loved watching her students grow. It was her favorite part of teaching and a positive even on the hardest of school days. The love she showed others was unconditional and “open-ended,” felt by the students she “loved with all her heart” and all those who knew her.
It didn’t matter who someone was, where they came from or what they believed, Brandi Taylor said. Rauber loved them.
“She just loved everybody, and it’s the type of love like that that we’re supposed to have and emulate. And that’s what she taught me—even though she wasn’t my teacher,” she said with a laugh.
It’s that love, and more happiness, Brandi Taylor hopes people take from Rauber and remember her by. She talked with The Bulletin on a church pew, dressed in a yellow blouse and earrings of Rauber’s favorite flower—a sunflower.
That very flower will be grown in a flower garden at Riverside Elementary in Rauber’s memory. Rauber received a grant for the flower garden a few years ago.
“Be more happy,” Brandi Taylor said. “And love everyone regardless.”
A GoFundMe for Rauber’s family is currently accepting donations. The money raised will be put toward unexpected expenses and honoring Rauber and her passion for teaching.
