How the Yankees Took Florence - Part I

 

by

Mitch Gann

His name is William Dickerson Jordan. You can just call him Dick.


His parents moved to Florence, Alabama, after World War II, expecting a real estate boom. Barksdale Jordan and Jessie Dickerson Jordan may not have found the boom they had anticipated, but nonetheless the couple prospered and by 1950 had opened their own real estate company.


An interesting side note: Barksdale, of Lamar County, and Jessie, of Selma, pronounced their surname as “Jurdan.” As an adult, Dick has always used the pronunciation of “Jordan.”


Dick was the middle of their three children, born in 1944. He attended Coffee High School where he played on the football team along with his lifelong pal Joel Anderson Sr.  After graduation in 1962, he attended Auburn University where he met his first wife, Charlotte Jernigan of Falls Church, Virginia. The union produced two children, William Eidson Jordan and Ella Gaines Jordan Llevat.


Back home in Florence after graduation from Auburn in 1966, Jordan began his career at the M.J. Carter Insurance Company. He first ran for and was elected to the Florence City Commission in 1979. When the commission form of government changed to a city council, Jordan was on the inaugural panel representing District 2 in 1984.


After he was elected to the old Florence City Commission, Jordan began to write various insurance policies for the city. The Alabama Attorney General Charlie Graddick stated at the time that there was no ethics violation in the practice.


Jordan and his first wife divorced, and he soon married Etta Kay Williams. Then Jordan hit a blip in his council career. By 2000, Florence mayor Eddie Frost was seriously ill. Jordan was next in line to succeed him.


When Frost died in March 2001, Council President Dick Jordan became mayor. It was a position that Jordan proclaimed he had never wanted; nevertheless, he was now in the public eye more than ever. During the next election cycle, Jordan chose to run for his old council seat representing District 2, saying that serving as a full time mayor interfered with his work at the Carter Agency and ultimately cost him money.


Things may have returned to normal for Jordan in his career, but his second marriage was not on such an even keel. Soon Dick and Etta Kay parted ways.


Dick then met Elizabeth Stockard Watts. She was twice married and divorced, as he was. Libby, as she was known to her friends, was looking for a better job, and Dick was there to help. With his assistance, Libby found a home on the University of North Alabama Board of Trustees. About the time of their marriage, Libby began work with Florence Arts & Museums.


Libby became the only Director of Cultural Tourism that Florence ever had…courtesy of Dick. She then went on to become the director of the Rosenbaum home…courtesy of Dick. It was there that she met a volunteer named Brian Murphy…