[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 8]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 10844-10845]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 IN CELEBRATION OF THE 85TH BIRTHDAY OF MR. LAWRENCE WRIGHT JORDAN, SR.

                                 ______
                                 

                      HON. SANFORD D. BISHOP, JR.

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, June 29, 2012

  Mr. BISHOP of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, it is my honor to extend my 
personal congratulations and happy birthday wishes to Mr. Lawrence 
Wright Jordan, Sr., who will turn 85 years of age on July 8, 2012. On 
this day, he will be honored by his family and friends at a celebration 
at Crawford County Board of Education Auditorium in Roberta, Georgia at 
1:00 p.m.
  Mr. Jordan, the second of nine children, was born on July 8, 1927, to 
Mattie Lee (Barnes) Jordan and Graham Jordan, Sr. in Roberta, Georgia. 
He started working at a young age and served as the ``house boy'' for 
the family whose land his own family lived on.
  As he grew up, Mr. Jordan had a great desire to serve his country and 
wanted to enlist in the United States Army at age 18. However, he was 
required to wait as his older brother was in the Navy and his mother 
did not want two sons in the military at the same time. He was finally 
able to enter the Army at the age of 25.
  In the 1950s, Mr. Jordan served two tours of duty in the Korean War 
before receiving honorable discharges from the Army. He is one of the 
very few Korean War Veterans still alive today.
  On October 11, 1958, Mr. Jordan married Anola Preston, also of 
Roberta, Georgia. They would go on to have six beautiful and loving 
children: Barbara Ann (Jordan) Snowden, Lawrence Wright Jordan, Jr., 
Linda Joyce Jordan, Sam Edward Jordan, Tammy Renee (Jordan) Jones, and 
John Howard Jordan as well as Shirlene Tennyson, who, sadly, passed 
away. Additionally, Mr. Jordan has 18 grandchildren and 10 great-
grandchildren.
  George Washington Carver once said, ``How far you go in life depends 
on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the

[[Page 10845]]

aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong 
because someday in your life you will have been all of these.'' Mr. 
Jordan has advanced so far in life because he kept these lessons with 
him throughout his childhood, his service in the Army, and his adult 
life.
  The race of life isn't given to the swift or to the strong, but to 
those who endure until the end. Mr. Jordan has run the race of life 
with grace and dignity and God has blessed him over his lifetime.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me today in paying tribute 
to Mr. Jordan, a distinguished veteran and beloved husband, father, 
grandfather, and great-grandfather.

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