"Duke" Jordan

Duke Jordan was born November 4, 1928 at Universal City where his father, Sport took care of the horses used in the early motion pictures. At the tender age of 5 he was dressed in a cowboy outfit and wowed the crowd when he performed, Waiting for a Train by Jimmie Rodgers. All of his life he loved to sing. His rich golden voice and love for music would play a major role in his family.

In 1941 Duke lost his father Sport, a WWII Silver Star recipient, during the war in the Philippines. His mother, now a widow raised Duke, his bother Bobbie and two sisters, Dolores and Dian working in a factory during the day and playing honky-tonk piano at night.

In 1950, Duke met the love of his life, Margarita Estela Solis. He was drafted into the army and served his country in Korea where he fought at Bloody Ridge and Heartbreak Hill. Margie and Duke exchanged love letters bringing light to those horrible days of hell at war, and were married upon his return. Duke always referred to their anniversary, April 26, 1953 as the happiest day of his life. Their honeymoon in Big Bear was magical.

Throughout his career Chevron benefitted from Duke’s brilliant creativity. He designed oil spill equipment used to recover thousands of barrels of oil for the refinery and from multiple offshore releases including the Valdez spill. In his honor, Chevron named one of their oil spill boats which is moored in Redondo King Harbor the “DUKE J”.

Although Margie was told she would not be able to bear children, Duke and Margie had 4 kids, Cindy Steve, Mark and Kurt. Redondo Beach has always been his home and the house on the avenues the hub of his happiness for 69 years. He was a great Dad with high integrity. Papa and Dodgie (Grandmother Margie) have 10 grandchildren, 21 great-grandchildren and 2 great-great grandchildren.

Duke loved the ocean. To him it was the world’s largest swimming pool. Bodysurfing was his favorite sport. Through the years the entire family spent thousands of days with him at the beach.

The Duke and Margie Love Story is like no other. Anyone who ever knew them, will surely agree. Even in their 90’s they still flirted and giggled. They knew the words to hundreds of songs and would often burst out singing while playing cards. Each song seemed to have a special meaning to them. They would harmonize each tune in perfect pitch as they gazed into each other’s loving eyes. To the end, they always held hands.

A loving man, an amazing husband, a good friend, a creative genius and a great father, Duke Jordan was one of a kind and we will miss him.