Tripti Joshi (Editor)

James R Jordan, Sr

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Nationality
  
American

Role
  
Name
  
James Jordan,

James R. Jordan, Sr. James and Michael Jordan A son39s quest for closure The
Born
  
July 31, 1936 (
1936-07-31
)

Known for
  
Father of Michael Jordan

Died
  
July 23, 1993, Lumberton, North Carolina, United States

Spouse
  
Deloris Peoples (m. ?–1993)

Children
  
Michael Jordan, Deloris Jordan, Larry Jordan, James R. Jordan Jr., Roslyn Jordan

Grandchildren
  
Jeffrey Michael Jordan, Marcus Jordan

Similar People
  
Michael Jordan, Jeffrey Michael Jordan, Marcus Jordan, Juanita Vanoy, Yvette Prieto

19th Anniversary: Death Of James R. Jordan Sr. (July 23rd, 1993) (1080p)


James Raymond Jordan, Sr. (July 31, 1936 – July 23, 1993) was the father of basketball and baseball player Michael Jordan, and the grandfather of University of Central Florida players Jeffrey Jordan and Marcus Jordan.

Contents

James R. Jordan, Sr. danilegreen1jpg

James R. Jordan Sr.


Biography

James R. Jordan, Sr. Bridget Hana39s Celebrity Signature Art Boca Raton

James Jordan was born in Wallace, North Carolina on July 31, 1936. He met Deloris Peoples after a basketball game in Wallace, North Carolina, in 1956. She was fifteen, and he was going off to the Air Force, but he told her he would be back some day to marry her. She eventually went off too, to the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, but she returned home soon, homesick. Not long after her return, they were married. Working for General Electric as a forklift operator, James eventually worked his way up the company ladder to supervisor. However, in 1963 he and his family moved to Brooklyn, NY in order for James to study hydraulics and become a mechanic specializing in automatic transmissions. The parents had moved to Brooklyn in 1962 along with their oldest son Larry. James Jordan came to New York to get mechanic’s training on the GI bill and studied airplane hydraulics, while Deloris found work at a local bank. James and Deloris had left their two eldest children with James’s mother in Wallace, North Carolina Michael was the fourth child out of five. He has two older brothers James and Larry, an older sister Delores and a younger sister Roslyn.

James R. Jordan, Sr. James R Jordan Sr 1920 1977 Find A Grave Photos

The drug and gang culture was beginning to take hold in the streets of Brooklyn, making it a less than ideal place to raise a family. So when James finished his training, he decided to moved the family back down to Wilmington, North Carolina when Michael was still a toddler. The family had stayed in New York for only 18 months.

James R. Jordan, Sr. httpssmediacacheak0pinimgcom736x019eac

A lifelong basketball fan, Jordan had played a large role in inspiring his son Michael to become an athlete. Jordan traveled the United States to follow Michael's career, first at the University of North Carolina and then with the Chicago Bulls.

James R. Jordan Sr. 20th Anniversary Death Of James Raymond Jordan Sr July 23 1993

Nonetheless, the senior Jordan was also a very big baseball fan, having gone semi-pro himself. Michael recounted in his autobiography and interviews that it was his father's vision that he become a baseball star. Baseball was in fact the first sport that Jordan Sr. had taught him to play. Michael recounted that this was a major factor in his decision to switch to the sport after his first NBA retirement.

Death

James R. Jordan, Sr. Convicted Jordan Killer Believes He Will Go Free YouTube

On July 23, 1993, while returning from a funeral, eight days before his 57th birthday, Jordan pulled over on US Highway 74 just south of Lumberton, North Carolina, to take a nap. Daniel Andre Green and Larry Martin Demery spotted the car, a red Lexus SC400 with the North Carolina license plate that read "UNC0023", Michael had recently purchased for him. Green and Demery shot Jordan to death while he slept in his car, then stole the vehicle. His body was found on August 3 in a swamp in Bennettsville, South Carolina, and was not positively identified until August 13.

After going through Jordan's belongings, Green and Demery realized that Jordan, Sr. was the father of Michael Jordan. They had taken other items from the car, including two NBA championship rings given to Jordan, Sr. by his son. Green and Demery made several calls from Jordan's cell phone and as a result were immediately captured. After their arrest, Demery said that they had planned only to tie up their victim and that Green pulled the trigger for no reason. Both were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for this and other violent crimes. James Jordan was buried at Rockfish AME Church in Teachey, North Carolina, on August 15, 1993. Court rulings that affected North Carolina like Enmund v. Florida, 458 U.S. 782 (1982) plus McKoy v. North Carolina, 494 U.S. 433 (1990) (topic: invalidating North Carolina's rule that a mitigating circumstance must be found unanimously in order to be considered by the jury) prohibited application of the death penalty. The accusation was based only on Demery's testimony, when Green did not testify. Defense counsel Woodberry Bowen said Demery had everything to gain by lying that Green was the triggerman, and that Green's testimony put Demery closer than he earlier admitted.

In 2010, it was revealed the case was one of nearly 200 that were in review after the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation found that laboratory technicians mishandled or omitted evidence.

References

James R. Jordan, Sr. Wikipedia