Rebecca "Cookie" Jordan

The Parrish community recently lost someone who has given a lot to help our community become an even better place to live, raise our children, and grow older. Cookie Jordan died on February 24, 2024 after a brief battle with cancer. She was 82 years old. Cookie was the publisher of the Parrish Village News for over 20 years and oversaw the paper’s growth from a quarterly black and white eight-page publication to a monthly newspaper of over 50 pages in full color. All along, she insisted it remain a free publication mailed to each house in the 34219 zip code. Cookie did so many other things. She recognized the newspaper value to new businesses in Parrish and helped them develop ads and keep them current. She served on the Board of the Friends of Rocky Bluff Library and helped them establish a sustainable financial footing. She was on the founding Board of the Parrish Foundation and helped them organize and establish the annual Parrish Chili Cook Off as a community event for families and a fundraiser to raise money for grants to small not-for-profit corporations serving our Parrish area. To date the Foundation has awarded over $300,000 in grants. She was central in an effort to capture the history of Parrish through the eyes and memories of our longtime residents. The newspaper provided the funds for equipment to record the interviews. The audio and video recordings later became the source for the production called “Red Rooster Tales.” She helped organize and establish the art wall at Rocky Bluff Library, which features the work of local artists. Her monthly “Cooking With Cookie” article in the newspaper was extremely popular and often someone would stop her in Publix to ask about a recipe. Cookie had a sister who was seven years older and no other siblings. She said when she was very young, when her father returned from his WWII tour with the Army Corp of Engineers, she remembered hiding behind her mother and being scared of this strange man – she had never seen him before. After her father returned to his job with TVA, the family moved to a new home in Fountain City, Tennessee. This house had a large back yard and her father planted a garden and grew a variety of vegetables. The garden provided more than the family could eat so her mother canned beans, corn, cucumbers, tomatoes, okra, etc. and this is where Cookie developed her love for canning. Cookie’s mother’s full name was Rebecca Parent Glaze and everyone called her Becky. For some reason Cookie was not given a middle name, so her name was also Rebecca Glaze. Cookie’s sister decided it wouldn’t do to call her little sister Rebecca (the name was too big for such a little girl), and they couldn’t have two Beckys in the same house, so she started calling her little sister “Cookie” after Cookie Bumsted in the comics -- and it stuck. In later years, when she was Branch Manager of IBM in Lexington, she was making a call on the President of Long John Silver’s Restaurants and he told her he couldn’t call her Cookie and asked her formal name. She replied Rebecca, and he was the only person I ever heard call her by that name. Cookie was a smart, warm, kind person who loved this community and the people that live here. The plaque on her grave will read: SHE MADE A DIFFERENCE AND SHE WILL BE MISSED, and indeed she will!