GAYLE ELIZABETH JORDAN, of Fresno, peacefully passed away on Friday, Sept. 14th at 4:00 in the afternoon after a brief illness. She was 68 years young! Gayle was our sister and the youngest daughter of the late Bill & Alice Jordan, also of Fresno. Gayle was born on August 18, 1950 in Colusa, Ca. and she moved with her family to Fresno in 1962 when she was 12 years old. She graduated from Hoover High School in 1969. Gayle’s life was well spent and full of adventures!
She had always had a quest to learn as much as she could about everything! She was an avid genealogist and compiled decades of information about our family history. In her younger years, she was a vet tech for Clovis Vet Hospital, she drove school bus for CUSD , & received many driving awards. She would refer to all her student passengers as her “Kids”. Earlier this year some neighborhood came knocking on her door and wanted to know if they could visit her. Before she got sick those kids would come almost everyday just to hang out with her. I would tease her by saying, “and you thought you never had kids”! She, also, was into showing Arabian horses.
Recently she started volunteering & fostering for Bandit’s Buddies Rescue here in Fresno. In 2014, Gayle and I took a road trip to Pie Town, NM to a dog sanctuary to adopt her current dog. She had looked all around the local area for the breed she loved and had no luck so she had this brainstorm to broaden her search……she asked if I could go with her to adopt a new dog but, at the time, I didn’t think we were going that far! It was a great bonding time and all the way home we tried to
think of a name for him. I finally said lets name him ROAD TRIP or Trip, as he is now called.
Gayle was, also, into technology of any kind…I think she was a computer “genius” and she helped bring the young and old into the technology. She had an unending passion for knowledge and she always had to know “WHY” & HOW things worked. She was a self proclaim “do it yourselfer” and there just didn’t seem to be any problem that she couldn’t figure out.
When our father passed in 1996 Gayle’s life revolved around Taking care of our Mother, while, also, working a full time job. Gayle spent a lot of time helping our Mother and she had little time left to pursue HER own life the way she would have liked. Sadly, in 2014, Gayle suffered a stroke and was forced to retire from her job as benefits Director for FUSD. However, even after the stroke, which left her with a short term memory problem, she continued to care for Mom until Mom passed away, at age 91, just last year. Gayle was now able to resume her own life….but sadly, I guess that was not in the Master’s plan!
Gayle was, also, into technology of any kind…I think she was a computer “genius” building, working on, programming & troubleshooting computer. She helped bring the young and old into the technology. I think her oldest clients were in their 90’s! She had an unending passion for knowledge and she always had to know “WHY” & HOW things worked. She was a self proclaim “do it yourselfer” and there just didn’t seem to be any problem that she couldn’t figure out. She was, also, the most generous person I knew!
Gayle was our beloved sister and a best friend, not only to me, but to many treasured friends she leaves behind!
She is survived by her brother, Don Jordan, of Cal City, Ca; her sister, Peggy Welder and her husband Bill of Nevada City, Ca; her beloved dog, Trip and her loving cat, Lily. She also leaves behind numerous nieces and nephews and many treasured friendships.
A Graveside Service will be held at Belmont Memorial Park on Saturday, September 29, 2018 at 11:00 a.m.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial donations may be made in Gayle's name to Bandit's Buddies Rescue in Fresno, Ca for which Gayle was a volunteer and foster mom. www.facebook.com/banditsbuddies.
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