James'+Stepfather

 James' Stepfather :: Hunter Jordan, Sr.

A good-matured furnace fireman for the New York Housing Authority, Hunter Jordan was Ruth's second husband and the father of the four youngest children. He spent his entire life savings to buy Ruth and the children a house in Queens.- Ruth's second husband and James's primary male role model. Hunter was a mechanic for the New York City Housing Authority. He met Ruth shortly after her first husband's death, married her, and had four children with her. Like Dennis, he was rather conservative. He shared Ruth's notions of the importance of God, family, and education. He died of a stroke when James was a teenager, and his entire family recalls him with fondness

Hunter had met James' mother a few months after James' biological father had died. When they finally got married, he always said he had enough kids for a baseball team. He made no separation between the eight McBride kids and the four Jordan children, he treated all of them like his own. To many of the children, he was most referred to as, "daddy."

"He was a gruff man with a good sense of humor, quiet, and stuck in his ways" (119). "He had a lot of Indian in his face: brown skin, slanted brown eyes, high cheekbones, and a weather-beaten outdoor look about him, a very handsome dude" (120).

Hunter Jordan, Sr., was one of four brothers- he, Henry, Walter, and Garland. Hunter was the most respected of the four brothers, and people would rarely see him angry. He would often take all of their children to either his house, or to his brother Walter's house where they could hang out play. In 1969, he received a letter from the city of New York telling him that they were building a low-income-housing high rise there, and that he had to move out. That's when he packed his things and moved in with mommy and the rest of his family.

About three years after he had moved in with his family, he suffered a stroke. He could not move his right arm or his right side, and could not talk. He came home from the hospital about a week later, seeming to get better. All he wanted to do was drive back home to Richmond, Virginia one more time where he had grown up, but he was too weak. He told James how important and special his family was to him, and told James to look after the family. Two days later he died from relapse. He was loved by everyone in the family.

Hunter Jordan, Sr., was an important part of James' family and life most importantly because it was the only father-figure he had really known growing up. He looked up to Hunter like he was his own father. James loved him with everything, just like the rest of the family.