IN MEMORIAM
EXPANDED EULOGIES
“In Memoriam” listings are expanded paid obituaries, phrased as the family requests, and may include enhanced information or photographs that might not fit within free death notices.
Giff Jordon
Services for former Peabody resident Gifford Keith Jordon, 86, who passed away Dec. 19, 2023, after a brief illness, will be 11 a.m. Friday, Dec. 29, at Brenthaven Presbyterian Church, 516 Franklin Rd., Brentwood, Tennessee.
If you are unable to attend but would like to participate in a live stream of the service, go to https://www.brenthaven.org/worship-online and click the “YouTube” link.
Visitation will be an hour before the service at the church.
Giff was born Nov. 20, 1937, in Sibley, Missouri, to Virgil and Martha Jordon. His parents, brother Darrell Jordon, and son-in-law Randy Parham preceded him in death.
Survivors include wife Barbara Gering Jordon, daughters Jana Parham and Marabeth Quin (and husband Casey), grandchildren Jordon Salveson and Sophie Salveson, and a late-in-life “third daughter,” dog Abigail, all of Nashville, Tennessee.
Giff spent most of his growing up years in Peabody, where he maintained close friends for his lifetime.
He lettered in several sports in high school and played semi-pro baseball in the Kansas League, taking the field with the likes of Yankee legend Billy Martin.
After attending what’s now Emporia State University, Giff joined the Army and became a paratrooper at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
After meeting Barbara, the love of his life, on a blind date, he told his mother he had met the woman he was going to marry.
Ten months later, they were wed on Dec. 3, 1960.
Giff’s proudest moments were the births of his two daughters. He flourished as a “girl daddy” and was even willing to play Barbies, even though he didn’t understand the “rules.”
Life insurance was his main endeavor professionally, both in Kansas and in northwest Arkansas, where the family moved in 1972.
In his 30s, he discovered his immense love of music, first introduced to him when someone owed him money but said could pay him back only with a guitar.
Giff taught himself to play and, over the course of his life, wrote and performed many songs.
He sang for three years with an auditioned choir, the Singing Men of Arkansas. Later, in his 70s, Giff moved to Nashville and got paid performing gigs without even trying. He took every opportunity to perform and loved singing for residents in assisted-living facilities.
Giff absolutely adored meeting and talking to people. When he and Barbara moved to Nashville in 2015, he found his favorite job driving for Uber, bringing home stories of complete strangers that would make his family howl with laughter or cry with compassion.
He sang often in his church, and his faith was very important to him. He is remembered for his laughter, lack of an indoor voice, and incredible love for his family.
They were everything to him, and he was obnoxiously proud of his wife, daughters, grandchildren, and sons-in-law.
He was present at every possible school event, play, dance, music recital, or professional performance that his daughters and grandchildren were engaged in.
Each day over the last years of his life he took his little dog, Abby, on a daily morning drive around the neighborhood so she could hang her head out the window while he happily greeted his neighbors.
His legacy of love and laughter stays with those who knew and loved him. He will be greatly missed.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to either Sacred Sparks Ministry or Brenthaven Church via https://www.brenthaven.org/giving.
An online guestbook is available at AustinFuneralService.com.