- Collection:
- Atlanta Funeral Programs Collection
- Title:
- The Memorial Service for, Beverly Doreen Jordan, (April 4, 1954-June 8, 2000), Zion Bethel United Church of Christ, Reverend D.A. Peace, Sr., Presiding, Wednesday, June 14, 2000, 2:00 p.m.
- Date of Original:
- 2000-06-14
- Subject:
- African American women--Virginia--Portsmouth--History--20th century
African Americans--Funeral customs and rites--Virginia--Portsmouth--History--20th century
Funeral rites and ceremonies--Virginia--Portsmouth---History--20th century
Funeral service--Virginia--Portsmouth--History--20th century
Mourning customs--Virginia--Portsmouth--History--20th century
African Americans--Virginia--Portsmouth--Genealogy - Location:
- United States, Virginia, City of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, 36.83543, -76.29827
- Medium:
- church records
programs (documents)
records (documents) - Type:
- Text
- Format:
- application/pdf
- Description:
- Funeral program for Beverly Doreen Jordan. Birth date: April 4, 1954. Death date: June 8, 2000. Funeral date: June 14, 2000. Church: Zion Bethel United Church of Christ (Portsmouth, Va.). The Atlanta Funeral Programs Collection is a project of the Digital Library of Georgia in association with the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African-American Culture and History as part of Georgia HomePLACE. The project is supported with federal LSTA funds administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Georgia Public Library Service, a unit of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.
- Local Identifier:
- Folder number: 81
- External Identifiers:
- Metadata URL:
- https://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/id:aarl_afpc_jordanbeverlydoreen20000614
- Digital Object URL:
- https://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/do:aarl_afpc_jordanbeverlydoreen20000614
- Language:
- eng
- Extent:
- 1 page
- Holding Institution:
- Auburn Avenue Research Library on African-American Culture and History
- Rights:
-
An Excerpt from
The 38th Year
by Lucille Clifton
... she was very wise and beautiful and sad. I have dreamed dreams to you mama more than once I have wrapped me in your skin and made you live again, more than once I have taken the bones you hardened and built daughters and they blossom and promise fruit like african bees. I am a woman now an ordinary woman.
In the thirty-eighth year of my life surrounded by life A perfect picture of Blackness blessed I had not expected this loneliness. It is western It is the final Europe in my mind, In the middle of life I am turning the final turn into the shining dark let me come to it whole and holy not afraid not lonely out of my mother's life into my own into my own ...
I had expected more than this I had not expected to be an ordinary woman.
Acknowledgments
The family wishes to acknowledge the many expressions of support and sympathy from family, friends and acquaintances. We hope that you will continue to remember Beverly and the joy she brought to all of us . We are especially grateful to the pastor and members of Zion Bethel United Church of Christ.
The Memorial Service For
Beverly Doreen Jordan
(April 4, 1954-June 8, 2000)
Zion Bethel United Church of Christ
Reverend D.A. Peace, Sr. Presiding
Wednesday, June 14, 2000 2:00p.m.
Order of Service
Processional Prelude ............ Opening Remarks ................. Hymn ................................... . Script'e Reading
Old Testament New Testament Prayer of Consolation ............ Hymn ........................ .......... .. . Obituary ................................
Reverend D.A. Peace, Sr. Blessed Assurance
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 John 14:1-6 Reverend James E. Wynn
Read Silently
Personal Remarks ................ . Solo ....................................... Eulogy ...................................
Family and Friends Donna Sherrell Reverend D.A. Peace, Sr.
*A Fellowship Meal will be served in the Multipurpose Room of the Zion Bethel United Church of Christ immediately following the service.
Obituary
Beverly Doreen Jordan was born on April4, 1954 in Queens, New York to Ruth D. Jordan (now Brown) and the late Joseph F. Jordan, Sr. She lived her early life in East Elmhurst, Queens with her older brother Joseph; her paternal grandparents Edith Mondezie Jordan and Malcolm Jordan, both from Trinidad, W.I.; her first cousin Renee, and other aunts and uncles. She moved to Portsmouth with her mother and brother in 1960 where she joined another loving family at the Brighton home of her great-aunt and uncle Lelia and Linwood Barnes, and her cousin Bernard Driver.
She joined and was very active in young people's activities at First Baptist Church, South Portsmouth. She attended Brighton Elementary, S.H.Clarke Junior High, and I.C. Norcom High School where she had the distinction of making the honor roll each semester. In addition to these school honors she also was selected to the Virginia Pilot-Ledger Star Tidewater Scholastic team on 8 occasions. She finished Norcom in 1972 with an 'A' average, was a National Merit Scholar and received over 100 scholarship offers from schools around the country.
She entered the Engineering Program at Northwestern University where she made the Dean's List on several occasions and graduated with a B.S. in Industrial Engineering in 1976. She immediately began a career as a Research Engineer at GATX Research of Niles, Illinois but decided to return to school to Northwestern's J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, where she studied under a Consortium on Graduate Minority Engineering (COGME) Fellowship. She finished the program with a Master's in Management in 1980.
She then followed a career path working as a Business Analyst for Exxon Chemicals in Houston; as a Manager of Data Analysis for Harris Research Associates, and as a Market Researcher for D.S . Howard and Associates, both in Chicago. Beverly later taught at Forsyth Tech Community College in Winston, Salem, N.C; was a substitute teacher for Winston-Salem!Forsyth County Public Schools and Portsmouth Public Schools and was an instructor at Tidewater Technical College. She worked also as a freelance writer and consultant and produced a number of finished scripts and was a member of the several screenwriter's guilds. At the time of her death her last work , A Greater Love, was under review by her agent.
She is survived by her mother, Mrs. Ruth Brown and her brother Joseph; a stepfather, Jesse Brown; a niece, Olisa Jordan Ashford and her family. She also loved and spoke often of Bernice Murrell, her mother's sister and her family, as well as first cousins Bernard Driver and his family Dale, Kara and Darienne. She also had a New York branch of her family including an aunt, Cynthia Jordan; a cousin, Renee Shippe and her family; and an uncle George Jordan and his family. She will also be missed by her great-aunt and uncle Lelia and Linwood Barnes.