Gordon Gerald Strain

SEDALIAN TAKES FORK, ENDS JOURNEY IN GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA

“When I was a kid, I would hop a freight train from Sedalia to Warrensburg—but never mustered the courage to go all the way to Kansas City. In the big city, those old freight yards were so huge you could get lost or run over with all the engine switching...”

Gordon Gerald Strain, alternatively known as “Jerry,” “El Gordo,” “Mr. Gordie” or simply “Pops” recently died under Haven Hospice care in Gainesville, Florida, at the age of 84. Missourian, U.S. Marine, musician, writer, train-lover and determined “Seeker,” Gordon, with his son, John M. Strain, by his side, succumbed to a nearly two-year battle with oral cancer and advancing dementia in the early hours of August 4, 2019.
Born in Sedalia, Missouri, January 26th, 1935 to Gordon Meade Strain and Gladys Geraldine Pugh, Gordon G. Strain had been residing in Pensacola for nearly 25 years but landed in Gainesville after becoming disoriented on a return drive from Fair Hope, Alabama, where he often spent his Sundays feeding the seagulls. Prior to Florida, Gordon had also lived in Louisiana, Texas and California.
Jerry, also once known as “Jeremiah Jitter Bottom,” (by his bewildered Mother, mostly), attended Washington grade school and Smith-Cotton High school. In High school, Jerry spoke at Lions Club’s meetings and played clarinet with both the Band and Orchestra. He earned his letter in music in 1952. In 1953, as a senior, Jerry joined the Missouri National Guard. (“We sure had a lot of patches to sew on those uniforms, and we loved to show them off—all the while wondering if we would be called up to Korea!”). From the Guard, at just 17, Jerry joined the U.S. Marines attaining “Expert Rifleman” with an M1 and “Proficiency” with both Browning automatic and .30 caliber machine guns. However, where he earned his greatest honors was playing clarinet for the Marine Corps band—including at the prestigious 1953 opening of Disney Land. Years later, in treatises written under such titles as “Letters from the Rock” and “Musings of the Old Missourian,” Jerry, borrowing phrasing from former President Teddy Roosevelt, poked fun at his own musical dedication: “What did I do in the Marines? I carried a big stick! (clarinet) and spoke softly. I was playing all the marches (when we were out on the grinder) in Glenn Miller style. The Dixieland One-Step!”
After an Honorable Discharge, his nine-year’s service having earned him the GI Bill, Jerry, now called Gordon, began studies at Central Missouri State College in Warrensburg, Missouri, before going on to his journalism degree (with a minor in theology) from Columbia
[Missouri] in 1963. Still later, in 1969, following a move to California, Gordon was hired as a part-time security guard, enrolled at San Francisco State, took up Clinical Psychology and had a run in with an infamous terrorist group.
I had left my job at the Oakland Tribune, except for one night a week, to study on my Masters in Psychology…it was during this period that the Weather Underground blew up the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms on the tenth floor of the Wells Fargo building where I was employed as a Burns Security console operator.

As a writer, Gordon modeled H.L. Mencken, Ernest Hemingway and Mark Twain. His newspaper career began with the Beaumont Enterprise-Journal. From Beaumont, he moved to Houston, then, yet again, to New Orleans, working for six years with the Times-Picayune (while in “The Big Easy” he also followed the jazz stylings of Al Hirt, Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong and many others). He retired from the newspaper business after serving 15 years as Editor on the Oakland Tribune. Although he had given up professional journalism, split from his wife, returned to Missouri, then, later still, moved to Florida, Gordon continued to author dozens of lengthy letters, editorials and unpublished children’s stories—all while taking several automobile and Amtrak rides in between.
Baptized at 10, in his mid 20s, Gordon withdrew from organized religion, dedicating himself, instead, to seeking his own answers through mythology (Joseph Campbell), Psychology (Carl Jung/Sigmund Freud), and other pop culture offerings like “Est,” “A Course in Miracles,” and “Scientology.” Student and critic of Testaments Old and New—of all of humanity, in general--Gordon interpreted the good books as anything but divine:
Everybody believes his/her own version of the truth. But the word of God does NOT mean the word BY God, by god! It simply means, ABOUT God. Of does not mean from. For if God had dictated the scriptures word for word, humankind would still have managed to get it wrong…simply put, all religion is no more than myth, fable, and opinion.

Despite having overcome alcohol and cigarette addictions, Gordon waged life-long battles against other ailments as well: Toxic Shame, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Depression, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, tinnitus and, finally, his two most ruthless opponents: dementia and cancer. Much like his boyhood self, hopping trains back and forth to Warrensburg, ultimately, Gordon decided not to get further “lost” or “run over;” opted not to endure his illnesses any further. In steadfastly refusing medical treatments, Gordon G. Strain, instead, ended
his earthly journey—and mortal suffering--in Gainesville, Florida, on a Sunday, son John by his side, just a few hours before the dawn.
If there is some kind of afterlife, it will likely be in spiritual form—the spirit returns to the Creator, I suppose, as in Greek philosophy. I don’t particularly care to exist as spirit—although, I don’t pretend to know all that much about it…but, as I always say, ‘When you come to a fork in the road, take it!’

Gordon G. Strain was preceded in death by his younger brother, Johnny Randall Strain, as well as by his parents, Gordon and Gladys Strain, his Uncle, Wilbur Pugh, his Aunt Ellen “Dean” Osbourn and many others. He is survived by his sister, Judy Lambert, as well as a nephew and niece, former spouse, Judith Lipman, step-daughter, Myra Leavitt, stepson, and his #1 son, (and #1 admirer) John M. Strain--as well as several step-grandchildren and one step-great grandchild. Memorial contributions may be sent to either cancer, dementia, and stroke research foundations.