82 Fairview Ave.
Naugatuck, CT 06770
Phone: 203-729-4334
Fax: 203-729-4336

The Memorial Candle Program has been designed to help offset the costs associated with the hosting this Tribute Website in perpetuity. Through the lighting of a memorial candle, your thoughtful gesture will be recorded in the Book of Memories and the proceeds will go directly towards helping ensure that the family and friends of Henrietta Jordan can continue to memorialize, re-visit, interact with each other and enhance this tribute for future generations.

Thank you.

Cancel
Select Candle

Obituary for Henrietta Jordan (Hilinski)

Henrietta  Jordan (Hilinski)
MIDDLEBURY -- Henrietta (Hilinksi) Jordan, a loving wife, mother, and grandmother, died Monday, July 21, surrounded by family at her daughter’s home in Brookline, Mass. She was 95 years old.

A coal miner’s daughter and a Rosie the Riveter of her day, Henrietta was born on April 16th, 1919, in Waterbury, Ct., to Clementina and Anthony Hilinksi, at the height of the Spanish Flu pandemic. As she often recounted, she was gravely ill as an infant and her Polish immigrant parents were told by a local doctor to “call the undertaker.” Desperate, her parents brought her to see a local medicine man, Chief Two Moon, who she always credited, along with her devoted parents, for saving her life.

As an adolescent, she and her family moved to Nanticoke, PA where her father labored as a coal miner. She and her family returned to Waterbury several years later. During World War II, she joined the thousands of other “Rosie the Riveters” who supported the war effort, working the assembly line at Scovill’s Manufacturing in Waterbury to make munitions for allied forces.

After the war, she fell in love and married James Jordan of Middlebury, who served in the Army at D-Day and was captured and held prisoner of war by German forces at the Battle of the Bulge. Together they raised six children in Middlebury, where they were both longtime residents and communicants of St. John of the Cross Church.

A devoted mother and grandmother, Henrietta was happiest when surrounded by her family. An accomplished self-taught cook and child of the Depression, to her food was love, and she shared that love generously with family, friends and neighbors, whether it was a slice of Blueberry Buckle or perfectly crisp fried chicken. She loved nothing better than to whip up a ratatouille from vegetables picked fresh from the family garden, or to send her kids out on long expeditions to pick enough wild blueberries to make a pie for dessert. Her passion for cooking, laughter and dancing were passed down to her children and grandchildren, who have all embraced her spirit of love and generosity. That generosity was returned by her daughter and son-in-law, Judith and John Lauerman, of Brookline, MA, in whose home she spent the final years of her life.

Henrietta was predeceased by her husband, James; her son James; her son-in-law, Nestor Pangilinan; and her siblings, Jean Mendyka, Ray Hilinski, and Helen Krawchuk. She leaves her sister and brother-in-law, Wanda and Tony Suchower of Seymour, CT.; her daughter, Janet Pangilinan of Waterloo, IA, and her grandchildren, Faith Pangilinan of Rockville, MD., Scott Pangilinan of Cedar Rapids, IA, Todd Pangilinan of Portland, OR and Amy Pangilinan of Seattle, WA; her daughter and son- in-law, Joan and Joseph Rinaldi of Harwinton, CT, and her grandchildren, Jessica Rinaldi and her husband John Skibo of Medford, MA., and grandson Philip Rinaldi of Harwinton, CT; her son, Gary Jordan of Naugatuck, CT; her daughter and son- in-law Judith and John Lauerman, and her grandchildren, Hanna and James Lauerman of Brookline, MA; and her daughter and son-in-law, Susan Jordan and Timothy Clifford, and her granddaugher, Keely Clifford, of New York City. She is also survived by many loving nieces and nephews.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Friday, July 25th at 10 a.m. at St. John of the Cross Church, 1321 Whittemore Road, Middlebury, CT, followed by burial in Middlebury Cemetery. Friends and family please meet directly at church. Relatives and Friends may call at Buckmiller Funeral Home, 82 Fairview Ave., Naugatuck, on Thursday, July 24th from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Henrietta’s remembrance to St. Jude’s, (stjude.org) or St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105, or to a charity of your choice.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Henrietta Jordan (Hilinski), please visit our Heartfelt Sympathies Store.

Order Flowers
Recently Shared Condolences
Recently Shared Stories
Recently Shared Photos