Mary Gretchen (Mueller) Jordan

Mary Gretchen “Dutch” Jordan

01/25/1927-03/15/2018 

Mary Jordan passed away March 15, 2018 at Porters Hospice in Centennial, CO.

Born Mary Gretchen Mueller on January 25, 1927 in Scottsbluff, NE, she was the second of seven children born to her parents Albert Theodore and Mary Ella (Gardener) Mueller.  Mary’s family soon moved to North Platte, NE when her father, a salesman for the Nash-Finch food distribution company, found the opportunity to have his own grocery business: Mueller’s Grocery.  Mary grew up during The Great Depression in small-town Nebraska with little money but life was full and lively with close friends, school, sports activities, and great devotion to the Catholic Church.  While Mary was often referred to as Gretchen because her mother was also named Mary, her father tagged her with the nickname “Dutch” because she often found humor in wearing her clothes backwards.  During World War II, Mary volunteered at the North Platte Canteen, which was famous for serving thousands of soldiers on troop trains stopping briefly at the Union Pacific railroad station in North Platte.  Soldiers received homemade baked goods, sandwiches, coffee, etc. delivered in epic proportions (during heavy war rationing) by spirit-lifting volunteers.  This spirit of generosity along with a tireless work ethic would stay with Mary throughout her life.  As a teenager, Mary, along with her older sister Eleanor, worked in the hospital as nurses aids and the two sisters both discovered nursing as their life’s calling.

After graduating from St. Patrick’s High School in 1945, Mary traveled to Denver, CO to begin nurses training.  She joined the U.S. Army Nurse Corps during World War II and trained at Mercy Hospital.  World War II ended before she graduated in 1948.  She wanted very much to serve in the Corps and was disappointed that she didn’t get that opportunity.  Mary had completed training and was working at Mercy Hospital when she met a cancer patient’s son named Thomas C. “Tom” Jordan, whom she would marry on May 30, 1952.  They would remain wed until Tom’s passing in 2012 after nearly 60 years of marriage.  Now a married lady, she continued her nursing career working until the early 1960’s when she suspended her career to devote herself to her husband and raising three children.  In 1970, her husband’s business was relocating and Mary was recruited to paint the new bathrooms (a highly capable avant-garde do-it-yourself woman) and that was that: she would then work six days every week at the family business Stockyards Ranch Supply from that time on while continuing to be the heart of the household while raising the children. 

Mary was talented: a piano player who appreciated good music, an excellent cook, an accomplished seamstress, and a superior homemaker.  She had a fun loving personality combined with an unprecedented capacity to get-things-done yet never complain about a thing.  She was lady of great compassion with a gift to care for and win over children, whether they were children of neighbors, customers, or even strangers.  As a grandmother, she would pull grand children along in the Little Red Wagon for hours and hours.  As a business woman, she kept the books, answered phone calls with a high level of product knowledge, ran errands, and outperformed just about anybody with her sales prowess. “Dutch” could outwork colleagues only half her age and she did it with such grace, ease, and warmth.  She was respected, admired, and loved by co-workers, customers, suppliers, and of course the other family members operating the business who were dazzled by her capabilities. 

She retired in 2009 to care for her husband who had been diagnosed with cancer.  Mary continued her tireless efforts and gave of herself endlessly.  Her devotion to her husband had no limit.  She cared for him continuously, 24 hours a day, with almost no assistance by her own choice, devoted to keeping him comfortably at home in Parker, CO until he passed away in 2012.  Her self-sacrifice while maintaining a warm, friendly, caring and giving demeanor was phenomenal especially considering her age.  After Tom’s passing, she continued to live at home until her age forced her into an assisted living facility in Parker, CO in 2016.  She maintained a high level of independence and carried on with good humor, cheer and kept a sharp mind and wit to the very end.  On March 15, 2018, suffering from chronic heart failure, she died after a short hospitalization and one day in hospice. 

She is survived by daughter Mary J. (Russell) Steen; sons Thomas H. (Jamie) Jordan, Daniel C. (Laura) Jordan; grandchildren, Mary E. (Lance) Heyer and Russell T. (Tara) Steen, Anna M. Jordan, Kathryn J. (Michael) Sjaardema, David T. Jordan and Lisa J. Jordan.  Great grandchildren; Haylee & Landon Heyer, Summer & Michael Sjaardema.

Funeral Mass will be held 11:00am 03/22/2018 at Ave Maria Catholic Church in Parker, CO with a reception to follow.  Private interment will be later that day at Our Lady of Visitation, Queen of Heaven Cemetery in Kiowa, CO.

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