Cherokee Gunfighter
Red Jordan
May 18, 1919 – January 18, 2005
Eulie W. “Red” Jordan, Jr. – Macon– age 85, died Tuesday in a
local hospital. Funeral services will be held 2PM Saturday in the Chapel of Crest Lawn Funeral
Home. The Rev. Wyatte Fraiser will officiate. Mr. Jordan was born in Washington County,
GA.A member of the New Heights Baptist Church, owner of Jordan Plumbing
Company, retired from Bibb County was a plumber. Mr. Jordan was founder of Macon Gun-fighter Club
and the oldest member of Cherokee Gun-fighter Club. -Survivors include his daughters, Judy Gregory and Betty Carpenter both of Nashville, TN. Grandson Skeeter Whidby of Downsville, LA, several nieces, nephews and cousins companion Ms. Clyde Rumney of Macon.
Article in the MaconTelegraph on Red
Gunfighters fire final tribute at Maconfast-draw legend’s funeral
When Red Jordan was buried Saturday with his boots on, eight of his buddies were there for a fast-draw
salute.
The man who was born Eulie Washington Jordan Jr. more than 85 years ago made quite a name for himself
across the country as a gun fighter.
He’s slung guns with Clint Eastwood, Sammy Davis, Jr., and the legendary gun coach to the stars, Arvo
Ojala, who appears in a gun battle with James Arness in the opening scenes of TV’s “Gunsmoke”.
Each year Jordan would load up a mattress in the back of the family station wagon and head west to
compete. He still holds the world record in “walk and draw,” his friends say.
Since Jordan died last week of a cerebral hemorrhage, he has been hailed as an icon, legend and pioneer
of the sport of fast draw.
Internet tributes are popping up on fast draw web sites.
It was the love of western movies that lured Jordan from his Macon home to Hollywood where he studied with
Ojala.
The Dec. 15, 1961, edition of Life magazine featured a photograph of Jordan firing from the hip with a plume of smoke coming out of his pistol during a competition in Las Vegas.
Blinded by a BB gun in one eye as a boy, Jordan practiced drawing guns in front of a long mirror in his bedroom, his daughters said.
“He would practice fast drawing so if he dropped the gun, it would fall on the bed,” Jordan’s daughter Judy Gregory said.
Her older sister, Betty Carpenter, remembers helping her father during her teen years when he put on show for charity in Third StreetPark in downtown Macon.
“Daddy used to shoot cigarettes out of my mouth,” Carpenter said. He never once hit her, she said.
“He hit me,” Gregory said, rubbing the spot on her lip where the wax bullet hit her decades before.
Over the years, the fiery red hair of his youth that earned him his nickname gave way to a pearly-white
mane.
But he never lost the desire to shoot. Jan. 2, he traveled to Evansville, Tenn., for what would
be his last competition.
That day, Larry Atcheson, 40, of Powder Springs, snapped a picture of the man he considers a
second father.
“I told him to give me his meanest gunfighter pose,” Atcheson said of the photo of Jordan flashing
a wide smile. “For an 85-year-old gunfighter, I guess that’s pretty mean.”
Despite his visual impairment, Jordan was a straight shooter.
He would balance a paper cup on the back of his gun hand, drop the cup while drawing his gun,
fire and hit the cup before it hit the ground, his daughter said.
Or he could throw a dart at a balloon, draw his gun and fire to break the balloon before the dart
could get there, they said
Sometimes he’d put tape over a washer, throw it in the air and blow the tape off of it, they said.
After Jordan learned from the master out West, he trained others and founded the Macon
Gunfighter Club. He also was the oldest member of the Cherokee Gunfighter Club.
“Everybody shooting in the fast draw it going to miss him,” said Jim Hall, who hosted this
month’s competition in Evansville.
A couple of years ago after thedeath of another fast draw legend, Pop Frysinger of Alabama,
the men loaded bullets with Frysinger’s ashes and fired a tribute.
Hall took one of those ash-filled bullets and capped it off with the thousands of wax bullets
Jordan crafted over the years. Hall placed it in the chest pocket of Jordan’s western-wear shirt.
They’re together again,” Hall, said of his two fast-draw friends.
Smitty Polhill of the Labell Lightning Fast Draw Club in Florida place a red-handled pistol
in Jordan’s coffin.
Two crossed pistols over the word “Red” were inscribed in the casket, a fitting tribute for a man
whose life was a blast. “He was full of what I call spit and vinegar until the day he died,” Gregory said.
“He was a pistol,” Carpenter said.
Red Jordan
May 18, 1919 – January 18, 2005
Eulie W. “Red” Jordan, Jr. – Macon– age 85, died Tuesday in a
local hospital. Funeral services will be held 2PM Saturday in the Chapel of Crest Lawn Funeral
Home. The Rev. Wyatte Fraiser will officiate. Mr. Jordan was born in Washington County,
GA.A member of the New Heights Baptist Church, owner of Jordan Plumbing
Company, retired from Bibb County was a plumber. Mr. Jordan was founder of Macon Gun-fighter Club
and the oldest member of Cherokee Gun-fighter Club. -Survivors include his daughters, Judy Gregory and Betty Carpenter both of Nashville, TN. Grandson Skeeter Whidby of Downsville, LA, several nieces, nephews and cousins companion Ms. Clyde Rumney of Macon.
Article in the MaconTelegraph on Red
Gunfighters fire final tribute at Maconfast-draw legend’s funeral
When Red Jordan was buried Saturday with his boots on, eight of his buddies were there for a fast-draw
salute.
The man who was born Eulie Washington Jordan Jr. more than 85 years ago made quite a name for himself
across the country as a gun fighter.
He’s slung guns with Clint Eastwood, Sammy Davis, Jr., and the legendary gun coach to the stars, Arvo
Ojala, who appears in a gun battle with James Arness in the opening scenes of TV’s “Gunsmoke”.
Each year Jordan would load up a mattress in the back of the family station wagon and head west to
compete. He still holds the world record in “walk and draw,” his friends say.
Since Jordan died last week of a cerebral hemorrhage, he has been hailed as an icon, legend and pioneer
of the sport of fast draw.
Internet tributes are popping up on fast draw web sites.
It was the love of western movies that lured Jordan from his Macon home to Hollywood where he studied with
Ojala.
The Dec. 15, 1961, edition of Life magazine featured a photograph of Jordan firing from the hip with a plume of smoke coming out of his pistol during a competition in Las Vegas.
Blinded by a BB gun in one eye as a boy, Jordan practiced drawing guns in front of a long mirror in his bedroom, his daughters said.
“He would practice fast drawing so if he dropped the gun, it would fall on the bed,” Jordan’s daughter Judy Gregory said.
Her older sister, Betty Carpenter, remembers helping her father during her teen years when he put on show for charity in Third StreetPark in downtown Macon.
“Daddy used to shoot cigarettes out of my mouth,” Carpenter said. He never once hit her, she said.
“He hit me,” Gregory said, rubbing the spot on her lip where the wax bullet hit her decades before.
Over the years, the fiery red hair of his youth that earned him his nickname gave way to a pearly-white
mane.
But he never lost the desire to shoot. Jan. 2, he traveled to Evansville, Tenn., for what would
be his last competition.
That day, Larry Atcheson, 40, of Powder Springs, snapped a picture of the man he considers a
second father.
“I told him to give me his meanest gunfighter pose,” Atcheson said of the photo of Jordan flashing
a wide smile. “For an 85-year-old gunfighter, I guess that’s pretty mean.”
Despite his visual impairment, Jordan was a straight shooter.
He would balance a paper cup on the back of his gun hand, drop the cup while drawing his gun,
fire and hit the cup before it hit the ground, his daughter said.
Or he could throw a dart at a balloon, draw his gun and fire to break the balloon before the dart
could get there, they said
Sometimes he’d put tape over a washer, throw it in the air and blow the tape off of it, they said.
After Jordan learned from the master out West, he trained others and founded the Macon
Gunfighter Club. He also was the oldest member of the Cherokee Gunfighter Club.
“Everybody shooting in the fast draw it going to miss him,” said Jim Hall, who hosted this
month’s competition in Evansville.
A couple of years ago after thedeath of another fast draw legend, Pop Frysinger of Alabama,
the men loaded bullets with Frysinger’s ashes and fired a tribute.
Hall took one of those ash-filled bullets and capped it off with the thousands of wax bullets
Jordan crafted over the years. Hall placed it in the chest pocket of Jordan’s western-wear shirt.
They’re together again,” Hall, said of his two fast-draw friends.
Smitty Polhill of the Labell Lightning Fast Draw Club in Florida place a red-handled pistol
in Jordan’s coffin.
Two crossed pistols over the word “Red” were inscribed in the casket, a fitting tribute for a man
whose life was a blast. “He was full of what I call spit and vinegar until the day he died,” Gregory said.
“He was a pistol,” Carpenter said.