Leelanau Locals: Empire’s Linda and Wayne Taghon

By Norm Wheeler

Sun editor

Never mind the quickly-eclipsed sound bites in the 24-hour news cycle, or the fast-fading highlights of yesterday’s ballgames, or the underwhelming trending topics in your social media feed. The real “influencers” in our lives are the folks who work to keep our cars on the road, like Linda (Mingus) and Wayne Taghon of Empire. 

Linda’s father was stationed here in the Air Force from the late 1940s to the late 1960s, monitoring the radar dome on the hill south of town during the cold war watch for Russian missiles. Wayne’s family ran the gas station and the original Taghon’s Garage on the main corner by the blinker. They both graduated from Glen Lake and have been married for 42 years. The couple has four kids (and 10 grandkids!). Their son Nick lives in Buckley, and daughter Jessica, a registered nurse, lives in Fife Lake and works in Traverse City. Their son Michael was a Marine for 10 years, and now lives in Newburg, Ore., working at LAM Research with cellular technology. He used to build the machines that make cell phone chips. (How’s that for being an influencer!) Their son Matt is in his seventh year of fixing F-15 jet engines on Okinawa.

Wayne Taghon spent 20 years in the U.S. Air Force. He and Linda and their growing family moved from Maryland to Okinawa to Idaho to Korea to California to Caro, Mich., and finally to South Dakota, before returning to Empire to resume working at the family’s garage. “I loved the open spaces out there,” Wayne remembers. “I went bow hunting there around the Black Hills. It is a magical place.” On May 4, 1998, with four kids in tow, they returned to Empire and to Wayne’s father Mike Taghon’s Garage. “All of us Taghons grew up working in the garage.” Wayne’s grandfather Fred Taghon ran the gas station, and his uncle Dave Taghon eventually took that over. Wayne’s brother Dennis took over the garage from Mike when he retired around 2003. 

That’s when Linda started running the office, managing appointments and keeping the books. When the Taghons outgrew the old two-bay garage on the corner of M-22 and M-72, they built a new one out by the Empire Campground and Airport on Benzonia Trail (677). When Dennis was ready to retire they sold the garage to Craig Olvey a few years ago, and now it’s called Dave’s Garage. (Craig is also part owner of the Dave’s Garage on Hastings St. in Traverse City.)

“The biggest change over the years has been in vehicle technology,” Wayne explains. “I went to many after-work training sessions as all of this new technology developed. When Craig Olvey was at Bill Marsh (in TC) before he became co-owner of our garage, he was great at setting up training for those of us on the front lines.”

“The vehicles are all different now,” Linda adds. “And with the online computer systems technology it’s much easier to look up estimates, for example, because there’s so much more information available at the touch of a button. I also had to go to training sessions to get up to speed on the new assets on the computer.”

Wayne just retired on Jan. 4. He’s almost 62. “It was time. I was wearing out, my body hurt, I was tired, and I knew it was just time. We worked hard at our retirement savings, and it was time.”

Linda plans to work another four or five years. “I enjoy doing what I’m doing. I didn’t work when Wayne was in the Air Force; I raised the kids. Now I like working. But things have changed. Fifteen years ago people would come up here and be really appreciative of what you did for them. Now everybody wants everything ‘Right Now,” she laughs.

The Taghons are content to hunker down in Empire. “We did our traveling when I was in the Air Force,” Wayne says. “But we plan to visit our kids wherever they’re at.” One of Wayne’s dreams is to do the Band of Brothers Tour. He learned about them through a mini-series on television about the World War II Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment,101st Airborne Division, US Army. “You can follow their path from Normandy to Berchtesgaden,” he explains. “But we have no plans yet.”