Constance became very fond of  the community of Croydon where she lived on Elmers Road until her passing. She made friends with her neighbours and loved socializing with shop keepers and community members in the cafes. Due to the finan cial support from her daughter, Leslie, Constance was able to remain independant as long as possible.

Constance was Grandmother Constance to Ayesha, Aziz and Omar, Leo Schmidt and wife Ines Schmidt's children.

Constance was Grandmother Constance to Ta'Kaiya, Anne's daughter.

Constance was Nona to Jenna Chasinghawk, Anne's daughter.

Constance was Grandma Zoo to Caroline, Matthew and Nicholas Denby, Leslie's children.

In 2016, Intellectual Historical Review published a Festsschrift for Constance with essays by many of her colleagues on the theme of "Studies in Intellectual Historiograhy." It was presented in a symposium in her honour and a highlight of her career.  

The Foundation for Intellectual History was later to become the Internatiinal Society of Intellectual History (ISIH). As one of the founders, she edited 16 issues of it's journal, Intellectual News. The Intellectual News was replaced by the Intellectual Historical Review in 2007.  

Constance also traveled widely, giving lectures and talks on her academic research. She delivered lectures all around the world, including The Russian Academy of Science in Moscow, in Germany and in Brazil.

In 1988, she established a dream of hers to build a Foundation for Intellectual History.  The purpose of the Foundation was pivotal and multi-faceted.  It's purposes included establishing international seminars for junior and senior scholars  mentiioned above, encouraging cooperative research across disciplines and natioonal borders.

Constance began writing and researching alongside Charles Schmidt, who was a well known in her field of Intellectual History. They became life partners and Constance gained three stepchildren, Leo, Elizabeth and John (who tragically lost his life). Tragically as well, Charles suffered a stroke at the early age of 53. Constance was grief-striken.

She moved permanently to the country she loved and adopted, Great Britain, in the mid 1970s and lived in Camden.  She spent many happy hours at the British Museum's Rare Book room where she pursued her PhD research. She quickly became an active member of the Society for Renaissance Studies and served as editor for their bulletin. 

Constance and William had three children, Anne, Leslie and Theodore. They lived for several years on the upper west side of New York City where Constance made life long friends with Allessandra, who since returned to Italy. The family moved to Greenwich Village while William taught at NYU and became chairman of the Russian History Department. The family spent weekends and school vacations in Falls Village, Connecticut (just outside of the Berkshires) where many happy memories were made hiking, playing in the streams, and swiming in a nearby lake. The family moved to the Upper East Side to be closer to Queens College, where Constance was an instructor. 

Constance married William Leslie Blackwell, a bright young scholar who had just earned his PhD at Columbia in Russian History. Duringb their engagement, William taught for a year in Egypt while Constance waited for his return back in the United States. They were married July 23, 1960. 

Constance attended Columbia University in New York City. She studied under the  Dr. Paul Kristeller, professor of Renaissance Humanism. Dr. Kristeller was an important mentor to Constance, and passed away in 1999. Dr. Kristeller presided over Constance's PhD studies. Kristeller is known as the "greatest  Renasissance scholar of the [last] century who traveled up and down the country giving hundreds of lectures, popularizing Renaissance studies." (New York Times 06/09/1999).

Constance attended Smith College with roomates whoi later became life-long friends: Maudie Davis, Cathy Mellon and Sheila Talcott. She studied American Studies at Smith College. She also studied Edgar Wind on Hegal and Art History at Smith College, and Historiography at Birbeck, University of London.

Constance's father remarried. She soon had a step mother, Ellie, and two stepbrothers, John and Sam. They spent summers in a log cabin on a lake in Wausaukee, northern Wisconsin, with other fasmilies from  the Chicago area. She learned to  paddle a canoe, fish for trout, and play tennis. Her father would accompany her in the rowboat while she learned to swim across the lake.

Constance attended the Chicago Latin School. She was hospitalized for polio for one year. She attended the Emma Willard School for Girls in Troy, New York during High School.

A picture of Constance's paternal great grandparents, taken in 1889 with Constance's grandfather, pictured as a young boy.

Constance was born in 1934 in Chicage, Illinois in the middle of the Great Depression (1929-1939) and five years before the start of World War II (1939-1945).
She was born to Dr. Samuel Gale Taylor III, considered a pioneer in cancer treatment and Jane Willett, a gifted and musical young woman. Constance's dear mother never recovered from a difficult childbirth and remained institutionalized following Constance's birth.  Constance remained a devoted daughter to her mother and visited her in the hospital until her mother's passing in the 1990s.