Hortense S. Gordon of Southampton Dies October 26

Hortense S. Gordon of Southampton died peacefully on October 26. She was 95.

She was born in Dinwiddie, Virginia, on September 18, 1929, to the late Reverend C. Ralph Spinner and Marian Powell Spinner. When she was 5 years old, her family moved to Southampton as part of the Great Migration, when Southern African Americans fled the South in search of a better life.

She was a 1947 graduate of Southampton High School. Her father, the Reverend Ralph Spinner was founder of Calvary Baptist Church in East Hampton, and he always spoke of the lack of opportunities for the minority population and vowed to send his children to college.

She chose Howard University in Washington, D.C., and graduated in 1952. After graduation, she became a student at Georgetown Law School.

This is where she caught Theodore Gordon Jr.’s eye. It was love at first sight for her. She told her friend, “See that man, I am going to marry him.” The two were married in 1954. Following her marriage and the birth of their first child, Theodore Gordon III, they lived in Florida with her husband’s family.

Their hopes of becoming attorneys and working together after graduation never came to pass due to the sudden death of her husband and the Christmas birth of their second son, Anthony Gordon. She returned to her family home in Southampton. After a few years, she decided to further her education and do graduate work at the same college at which her brother, Ralph, was enrolled, Hampton University in Virginia.

Dissatisfied with the separate but unequal Southern public-school systems and the dangerous racial unrest of the early 1960s, she returned to Southampton and enrolled her sons in the local school. The three of them lived in a cottage on the immense family property.

She became a teacher at the Southampton School District, at both pre-school and elementary school.

In 1972, on an acre of the family property, she built the three-bedroom ranch home where she lived the remaining time of her life.

She retired from teaching after 25 years, and went on to work part-time at Rogers Memorial Library for 20 years as a page. She loved books. She occupied her spare time by volunteering at Southampton Hospital.

She enjoyed going to the movies with friends, gambling at Foxwoods Resort Casino, and spending time with classmates at a monthly luncheon.

She was predeceased by her parents; brother Ralph; and sisters Elaine and Jean. She is survived by her two sons, Theodore Gordon III and Anthony Gordon; daughter-in-law Deborah Gordon; her grandsons, Kyle and Matthew Gordon; step-grandchildren Lamar Wilkinson (April) and Jessica Paulo (Nick); great-granddaughter Ellie Gordon; and step-great-grandsons Jackson Paulo, Jacob Paulo and J.D. Wilkinson; along with numerous nieces and nephews.

A visitation will be held on Friday, November 8, from 1-3 and 6-8 p.m. at the Brockett Funeral Home in Southampton. A funeral service will be held on Saturday, November 9, at 11 a.m. at the funeral home.