Vi Jordan

Vi Jordan
AM
Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
for Ipswich West
In office
28 May 1966 – 7 December 1974
Preceded byIvor Marsden
Succeeded byAlbert Hales
Personal details
BornEllen Violet Perrett
(1913-06-29)29 June 1913
Ipswich, Queensland, Australia
Died7 May 1982(1982-05-07) (aged 68)
Ipswich, Australia
Resting placeIpswich General Cemetery
PartyLabor
OccupationPolitician

Ellen Violet Jordan AM (née Perrett; 29 June 1913 – 7 May 1982) was an Australian politician. She was the second woman elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly, and the first representing the Queensland Labor Party.

Early life

Jordan was born on 29 June 1913, in Ipswich, the son of James Berties Perrett and Anne Jane (née Brown) Jordan. She attended Brassall State School and then Ipswich Girls' Grammar School before earning a Diploma of Education and becoming a schoolteacher.

Politics

Joining the Australian Labor Party in 1946, Jordan was a delegate to the Labor-in-Politics Convention in 1956. She was the inaugural president of the Women's Central Committee Queensland from 1956 to 1967 and secretary of the Ipswich Labor Party Executive from 1958 to 1965. In 1961, she became the first woman elected to Ipswich City Council, serving until 1967.

In 1966, Jordan was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly as the member for Ipswich West. She was the first Labor woman elected to the Assembly, and the first woman in parliament since Irene Longman's defeat in 1932. Jordan was defeated in 1974, after which she became the inaugural president of the Australian ALP Women's Executive.

Death and legacy

On 14 June 1932, Jordan married David Jordan, with whom she had two children. She died on 7 May 1982, aged 68, in Ipswich. She was buried in the Ipswich General Cemetery alongside her husband, who had predeceased her in 1967. The electoral district of Jordan created in the 2017 Queensland state electoral redistribution was named after her.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Former Members". Parliament of Queensland. 2015. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
  2. ↑ Jordan, Mrs Ellen Violet (Vi) (1913–1982) — Australian Dictionary of Biography. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
  3. ↑ Presbyterian C New Section — Australian Cemeteries. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
  4. ↑ Queensland Redistribution Commission (26 May 2017). "Determination of Queensland's Legislative Assembly Electoral Districts" (PDF). Queensland Government Gazette. p. 183. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 October 2017. Retrieved 29 October 2017.