Obituary of Sarah Frances Jordan

Sarah France Jordan, 100, passed awayat Genesis Healthcare, Millville, Center, Millville, NJ on Thursday, August 2, 2007. She is believed to be one of the last World War I widows in the City of Vineland. She was born Serafina Pisciotti on November 18, 1906 in Bacelice, Province of Benevento, Italy, the third of nine children of the late Guiseppi and Anna Maria (Marucci) Pisciotti. At the age of four, she immigrated to the United States through Ellis Island with her mother and oldest brother and settled in Ravenna, Ohio where her father worked in the refinery. Sh She attended Immaculate Conception Grammar School and Ravenna Public School until the age of 14, then went to work to help support her 6 younger brothers and sisters. She attended night school to complete her 8th grade equivalency. During the 1918 flu epidemic, at the age of 12, she accompanied the local doctor on his rounds of the sick to translate for the Italian speaking residents. She was a charter member of the Catholic Daughters of America in Ravenna, Ohio established in 1926. On June 26, 1926, she married her husband, the late Matthew Jordan (Matteo Giordano) in St. Mary's Church, Warren, Ohio. They latermoved to Philadelphia, PA and in 1934 settled in Vineland. A seamstress, she worked for Newell Clothing Factory in Vineland and South Jersey Clothing in Minotola and was a member of the United Garment Workers of America. She has been a member of Sacred Heart Church since 1934 and was a member of the Sacred Heart Grammar School PTA from 1936 to 1952 and helped with many fundraising activitees. She was a member of the Sacred Heart St. POascal Baylon Society making vestments for priests and was a charter member of the Sacred Heart Altar-Rosary Society for which she sewed communion dresses and worked on the church altar linens. She wasalso active in the Mater Salvatories Guild of the Mother of the Savior Seminary in Blackwood, N>J> and the St. Vincent DePaul Center in Vineland. She was a member of the American Legion Auxiliary, Vineland Post #4 for many years and served as president for two years. In 1948, she was chairperson of the American Legion's very first "Girls State" and chose current County Clerk Gloria Schiavo Noto as Vineland's representative to Trenton. During WWII, Sarah took a Red Cross Nursing Course sponsored by the City of Vineland and earned a Red Cross Nursing Certificate scoring first in her class. She also served on the Ground Observer Corps for the U.S. Air Force Air Defence Command. She was a volunteer at Bishop McCarthy Residence fora brief time and at Newcomb Hospital for many years and was proud of her red volunteer jacket and service pins. She was a member of the Senior Citizens Leisure hour sponsored by the City of Vineland Recreation Commission and served as president for three years during which time membership increased threefold. Her greatest pastimes were reading and spending many hours tending to her vegetable and flower garden that was admired by everyone who visited or passed by. Her passion for reading gave her the ability to converse on almost any subject. Her faith, family and friends were the most important part of her life. She will long be remembered for her great family dinners, especially her homemade pasta, manicotti, meatballs, her delicious chicken soup and her famous Italian fried "bows". She wil be saly missed by all who knew her.