Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, August 16, 1993 TAG: 9308160037
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: TEACHEY, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
Family and friends gathered to remember the way James Raymond Jordan lived, not the way he died, the victim of an apparently random act of violence. Jordan was killed at about 3:30 a.m. on July 23 after he pulled off Interstate 95 to sleep, law enforcement officials said Sunday.
The Rev. Joseph McCalop, who helped with the service, said Michael Jordan spoke for about 15 minutes during the hourlong service, telling stories about his father.
"He was smiling at the end, but the tears were still coming down," McCalop said.
The car carrying the elder Jordan's remains arrived at the Rockfish African Methodist Episcopal Church about an hour before the 3 p.m. funeral.
Former University of North Carolina basketball star Al Wood helped carry the casket with Jordan's ashes inside into the small red brick church, just across from a large corn field. The casket was draped with an American flag, in honor of Jordan's service in the U.S. Air Force.
Security at the church was tight, with the media told to stay across the road. But reporters were given a program of the service, which included a message from James Jordan's wife, Deloris, and her five children.
"The recent tragedy has brought us all here together who mourn the death of James R. Jordan. But we would be remiss if we did not also take this opportunity to celebrate his life," the program read.
"Everyone who has been touched by the warmth and strength of this special man can understand the depth of our family's sense of loss. Dad is no longer with us. But the lessons which he taught us will remain with us forever and they will give us the strength to move forward with a renewed sense of purpose in our lives."
The family arrived in two limousines, but Michael Jordan was not with them. He came in a car just before the service was scheduled to start and was ushered in a side door of the church. He stopped at the doorway to hug a deacon.
He soon was followed into the side door by his coach at North Carolina, Dean Smith. Also attending the ceremony was B.J. Armstrong, a Chicago Bulls teammate.
About 100 people lined the street across from the 100-year-old church in addition to the estimated 200 inside the church. Many parents brought their children, who stretched to try to get a glimpse of Michael Jordan.
Many from James Jordan's small hometown of Wallace, N.C., also waited outside.
Jordan was buried in a small cemetery near the church, where only about 20 or 30 others are interred. He was interred next to his parents, William, who died in 1990, and Rosa Bell, who died in 1988.
The life Jordan's family celebrated Sunday began 57 years ago when he was born to a sharecropper and his wife. The elder Jordan met his wife through her brothers and cousins, with whom he played basketball.
"I remember we were all riding home one time and he came around to let me out of the car," Deloris Jordan once said. "He said, `Oh, I didn't know you were in the car. You're cute. I'm going to marry you someday.' "
Persistence, a sense of humor and kindness eventually won her over, and she accepted his marriage proposal in April 1957, while he was stationed in Virginia in the Air Force. They settled in Wallace and Jordan began working as a forklift operator at the Wilmington General Electric plant. The fourth of their five children, Michael, was born Feb. 17, 1963, in Brooklyn, N.Y., were the elder Jordan had gone to take vocational courses so he could win promotions.
The Jordans have four other children - James Ronald, Deloris, Larry and Roslyn.
The family moved to Wilmington in 1970. The family's backyard basketball hoop became a neighborhood favorite. Family and friends say Jordan was a father figure to many.
James Jordan once said he was intimidated by his son Michael's talent and popularity.
"It's scary all of this could start in a little town like Wilmington, N.C. It scares the daylights out of you," he said in May. "To watch all that has happened to him, you say, `How the hell is it possible?' You don't try to understand it. If I sat around and dwelled on the thought of what he's doing, it would scare me to death. You have to let it drift away. There's no way you can rationalize the whole thing."
by CNB