Jones County celebrated Arbor Day by recognizing a local icon who served the Jones County School System for 30 years.
The April 26 event was organized by Keep Jones Beautiful Executive Director Hailey Robinson and was held at the Board of Education office on Stewart Avenue. An Eastern Redbud was planted in front of the office in memory of Linton Jordan, who died Aug. 9, 2023, at the age of 93.
Jordan served in the United States Army and earned the assignment to coach the U.
S. Army football team.After completing his military service, Jordan began his education career in Waycross, where he coached for six years. He moved to Jones County in 1961 and coached football until he defeated W.E. Knox for the job of superintendent in 1964.
It was Jordan who led the school system through integration with his focus always on the wellbeing of all Jones County students. He retired from the school system in 1991.
Robinson began the Arbor Day celebration with a history of the holiday.
According to the Arbor Day website, tree enthusiast and Nebraska newspaper editor J. Sterling Morton is credited with proposing a tree planting holiday at a meeting of the state’s Board of Agriculture meeting Jan. 4, 1872. The first celebration date for Arbor Day was set April 10, 1872.
Morton’s message took root and became a state holiday in 1874. The message of Arbor Day has continued to grow and is usually celebrated on the last Friday in April.
Robinson concluded her presentation by reading an excerpt from the poem “The Heart of the Tree” by Henry Cuyler Bunner.
“This tree symbolizes all that Mr. Jordan did and how he has impacted and shaped our community,” she said.
Jordan’s son Lee and daughter- in-law Denise were on hand to assist the chairman of the Jones County Keep Jones Beautiful Commission, Brennan Jackson, with the tree planting.
