Beatrice Blackburn (Jordan)

On her birth certificate, her name was Ophelia (which is what her mother wanted), but her father scratched it off and wrote Beatrice instead.

Nicknames: Sis, Bea, Aunt Bea-- most of the people of Pine Plains, NY ("the farm") called her Aunt Bea because most of the people there were various nephews & nieces and so those who weren't related to her knew her by that anyway.

She went to grade school at Blessed Sacrament in New Rochelle, NY at then attended New Rochelle HS.  After that, she went to art school at Cooper Union in NYC, Greenwich Village.

In addition to New Rochelle & the farm, she also lived in Wellesley, MA near Boston and in Pennsylvania near Paoli (Philadelphia).  After Robert died, she lived with Donna & her family for part of the year, usually roughly from Thanksgiving to Easter... and then year-round later on.

Her favorite doll when she was younger had no arms.  She can remember her Irish relatives visiting when she was younger. They would dance up a storm and cook good food.

One of her favorite jobs was working for a candy company.

She met Bob up at the farm with her friends.  They went to a dance for their first date when she was 16 and she knew from the beginning that he was for her, even though she made him wait until they were 25 until they got married.  They needed to save up enough money.

She was a wonderful artist.  She painted many pictures of the people in the family along with a stunning picture of Jesus that Donna kept in her family room.

When she was older, her hobbies were fill-in puzzles, gardening, bird-watching on her porch at the farm, and watching Tiger Woods play golf.  She had a green thumb and could get anything to grow... even when others nearly killed the plants.  One of her favorite foods was Pork & Sauerkraut.

She loved her great-grandchildren very much. She would give Noah & Adam "five" all the time... and she kept five dollar bills in her pocket for when they would come over because when she gave five... she meant it! We called her "GG" to stand for Great-Grandma.

wedding photo: George Steinger, Jerry Cadrer, Eileen Blackburn, Bob & George Jordan Evelyn Bantel, Beatrice, Helen Rundel & Eileen Blackburn(4)