Hi folks, thanks for the comments.  I hope noone flames me for what the
problem turned out to be but as this person mentioned, it was in fact
the bulbs preventing the cruise from working!

So, longer story, checked into it some more, did more testing as one
other person suggested at the back bulbs, found that everything was
working perfectly!!  All the way to the back, signal was coming in upon
pressing the brake pedal.  Brake switch then was totally fine.  But
bulbs were not, testing of course proved that as well since they were
still not doing anything even when power coming in.

So the cruise on the 1997 Taurus (at least on mine, assuming others) is
apparently hooked up to the THIRD, i.e. TOP MOUNT brake light, and if
the bulbs there are not working, cruise apparently doesn't do anything
other than let you turn it on.

SYMPTOMS AGAIN AS I INDICATED WERE cruise light comes on but *does
nothing.*  I.e. you press the "set" button.  NOTHING happens.  Resume,
etc, no cruise action works (except perhaps "coast" since that what was
happening anyway once you took your foot off the gas!).

So, that high-mount light did have a bulb problem, but I never knew such
a thing could be related to the cruise, I thought if the cruise problem
were related to the brakes, it would have to be in a switch that was
somewhere near the cruise control system.  Never thought the cruise
would have a connection to the rear end of the car to see if bulbs were
working!!!  So, that was the surprising thing, putting in the TOP MOUNT
bulbs fixed the cruise immediately, which by the point when I was
replacing them I was pretty sure was going to happen since in the whole
system that was the only part that didn't test perfect.

So, that's the story, it's now a done deal, everything working.

FWIW, I'll add one thing for more info, ALL MY brake lights were not
working (and this must have just started at the same point I noticed the
cruise going out since I use the cruise on *every* trip), and I'm
assuming that what was happening was that the two tail lights (which
worked, but not for braking) were malfunctioning maybe for a long time
and then the top mount was the last to go and because it always worked I
never noticed the tail light brake lights not illuminating.  That's my
theory (because can't imagine they all failed at once).  Then when the
top mount went out two things happened:  cruise stopped working, this
was the first thing I noticed and then one person told us our brake
lights weren't working, maybe one week later (! - amazing how reticent
people are nowadays to help with simple things like that!).

Anyway, point being, I know it was the top mount bulb because I had to
replace all of them and that was the first one I did because it was so
easy.  It was another day before I did the back tail lights and in the
mean time the cruise was perfect, again, immediately after restoring the
high-mount brake light but *before* fixing the other lights.

So, the top-mount brake light bad bulb was the reason for the failure.

Now, I could tell some more stories about why it took an extra day just
to put in the tail light bulbs.  Quite a chore Ford made that!  But now
that I know what's involved, not all that bad, and memo to Ford:  IF
that kind of greater difficulty setup makes it easier to make the trunk
very usable, I'm all for it as the trunk being usable much more
important than a little difficulty every few years replacing bulbs.

I don't think Ford is listening though since the bastards have
discontinued the Taurus.  Unbelievable SOBs!!!

So, anyway, that's the story, hope someone enjoys and learns...