A lifelong member of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Middletown, Jordan played the organ for more than 30 years and also directed the children’s and adult choirs.
“She gave everything she could,” said Michelle Terry, pastor at Bethlehem Lutheran for 12 years. “She gifted our church and Middletown in so many ways, and we’ll miss her so much. She loved people and God faithfully and unconditionally. If you can name it, she helped with it.”
Terry was asked what lessons she learned from Jordan. She thought about the same question as she was writing Jordan’s eulogy.
“She really embodied the Christian’s idea of Christ,” she said. “She was one of the most generous people. If she saw a need, she tried to help in some way.”
Terry has four children and Jordan always remembered their birthdays.
“She had the biggest heart,” she said.
John Jordan, 77, said his sister was unselfish almost to a fault. He remembered one year when his sister and some of her friends were invited to a birthday party while he wasn’t invited. She wrapped up some ice cream from the party in a napkin and tried to bring it home to her brother.
Jordan graduated from Germantown High School in 1960 after her family moved there after living in Middletown. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Capital University and her master’s from Miami University. She taught for 36 years, mostly to kindergartners. Following her retirement, she served as a tutor for students in the English as a Second Language program for 12 years.
Jordan said his sister, who never married, “loved kids” and enjoyed watching their academic progress throughout the school year.
She traveled to Japan twice as part of P.R.O.M.I.S.E.S., a music ministry of the First Methodist Church of Middletown, and participated in the Mount Pleasant Choir and Village Ringer.
She also volunteered in the Middletown Hospital, now Atrium Medical Center, emergency room and at the Food Pantry at First Methodist Church.
Her survivors include her brother, John A. (Katherine) Jordan, niece Karen (James), nephews Timothy and John F. (Lindsay), three great-nephews, Seamus, Ian, and Oliver, and longtime friend Sharyn Edelen.
A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Feb. 11 at Bethlehem Lutheran Church, 212 S Broad St., with Terry officiating. The service was scheduled for this week, but was postponed due to the impending winter storm.
A private family interment will take place later.
Arrangements are being handled by Breitenbach Anderson Funeral Home.
About the Author