Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 18, 1994 TAG: 9409220013
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-4 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Newport News Daily Press
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Medium
When Georgie Ella Gray Jordan was born on Sept. 18, 1880, Rutherford B. Hayes was president. By the time Congress approved the women's suffrage amendment in 1919, she was 39.
Now a patient at the James River Convalescent Center in Newport News, Jordan continued her amazing march through history by turning 114 today. And according to her only child, Ruby Jordan Smith, her spirit is still going strong. ``A little while ago, I told her, `Mother, in a few weeks you're going to be 114,''' said Smith, herself ready to turn 94 on Oct. 23. ``She looked at me and said, `Don't you tell nobody.'''
Until she was 110, Jordan lived with her daughter - who has no children - in a one-story house in the East End of Newport News. Smith still lives there, amidst old photographs, scrapbooks and playbills from shows by Jordan's favorite performer, singer Marian Anderson.
``She's never really been sick, and the only thing she's ever taken is aspirin,'' Smith said of her mother. ``I guess she's taken care of herself - like she's always eaten balanced meals.''
Jordan has been blind for 14 years, rarely speaks and is bedridden for most of the day. But workers at the convalescent center said she is ``amazingly alert'' and still recognizes visitors.
``She knows people by voice, and she's always listening to what goes on around her,'' said Yvonne Little, a senior nursing assistant who has been taking care of Jordan for more than three years.
``Everyone here loves her and loves taking care of her and making her as comfortable as possible,'' said Vicki Epker, spokeswoman for the convalescent center. ``She's a special person.''
Jordan is happiest, Little and Epker said, during her daughter's weekly visits.
``She'll take Ruby's hand and put it up to her face,'' Little said. ``And she still calls her `Baby.'''
She also perks up at any mention of chocolate.
``Georgie squeals when we bring her chocolate, especially Hershey's kisses,'' Epker said. ``Of course, at her age, she can eat whatever she wants.''
Jordan is likely the oldest living person in Virginia and possibly the oldest in the country, said a spokesman with the Virginia Health Department.
Since the Health Department's division of vital statistics did not keep steady records at the turn of the century, the spokesman said, there is no way to document if anyone in the state has lived longer than Jordan.
``But I doubt anyone has,'' he said.|
by CNB