Readers of our family history newsletter Our Bodenschatz Banditry* may recall the story of Sheila Jordan, a jazz legend who spent much of her childhood in Summerhill, Cambria County, Pennsylvania.

Once we learned about Ms. Jordan’s connection to Summerhill, the Bodenschatz family had the privilege of connecting with her via email. Ms. Jordan wrote that she was “shocked” to hear from people who knew of Summerhill. She also wrote that she was grateful to receive the Summerhill-focused issues in our family history newsletter that we shared with her. 

Ms. Jordan said she was known as Jeannie Hull as a child and attended grade school in Summerhill before attending a couple of years of high school in nearby South Fork. She moved back to Detroit with her mother, Rowena, when she was about 14 years old.

Sadly, Ms. Jordan passed away early this week at her Manhattan home, where she was being cared for by her daughter, Tracey. She was 96 years old but, by all accounts, remained young at heart throughout her lifetime. One indication of her musical mark on the world is that the National Endowment for the Arts formally recognized her as a Jazz Master, the genre’s highest honor.

Those interested in her story can read about her in memorial articles coming out in multiple publications, including Rolling Stone, People, Jazzwize, and the recent New York Times article by Barry Singer, which tells the story of her unique and impactful career, as well as that of her life, including this excerpt:

[Sheila’s mother] sent her infant daughter to live with her maternal grandparents, Walter and Irene Hull, who raised her alongside their nine children in Summerhill, Pa., a coal town in the Allegheny Mountains.

Once the Cambria County Historical Society learned of Ms. Jordan’s connection ot Summerhill last fall, they immediately included an article about her life and career in their newsletter. It is our hope that Ms. Jordan had a chance to read the article so that she would know that Cambria County began to celebrate her, however belatedly, during her lifetime. 

* Log in or register to read the column about Ms. Jordan in the November 2023 issue of our family history newsletter.