Juanita “Butch” (Hieb) Gordon, age 93, departed this earth on April 5th, 2025 with daughters Betsy, Jenny and Peggy by her side. The daughter of William Edward “Fritz” and Ida (Dean) Hieb, she was born and raised with younger brother William Carl “Bill” in Hamilton, Ohio. Of largely Scots-Irish and German origin, many of her relatives hailed from Appalachia, and Juanita drew on Appalachian storytelling tradition and her rich family heritage to become the keeper of family tales. She recalled sitting on her father’s shoulders as he waded across a mountain stream to visit the family homestead. There, on the Rattlesnake Branch of Buffalo Creek in Southeastern Kentucky, young Juanita collected colorful stories about her six aunts, three uncles and her grandparents, George and Martha. These stories and many others were fondly shared with family and friends over the next 90 years.

While attending Hamilton High, Juanita worked in Hieb’s Market, her father’s grocery store and butcher shop. Accompanying her father on grocery deliveries, she was privy to many Hamilton households from the mansions of wealthy politicians to neighborhood brothels. She credited her exposure to a diverse array of patrons as helping her to develop, from a young age, an open mind and egalitarian philosophy. Working in the market also instilled in Juanita a lifelong love of grocery shopping and browsing in every kind of store.

Juanita graduated from Ohio University with a BA degree and a nearly completed master’s thesis in American History. She loved college where she gathered many wonderful stories, mostly about mischief made and non-academic lessons learned. She enjoyed learning side-by-side with World War II veterans who, due to the GI bill, became her classmates and instilled in her a disdain for pretentiousness. Juanita also enjoyed evenings “gin jugging” with would-be husband Tom and dear friends Jack and Joyce, Sharon and Tom Jr. Her Sigma Kappa sorority sisters affectionately called her Butch due to her being the daughter of a butcher, a nickname that she was thereafter called by family and friends. In 1953, while still OU students, she and Thomas Lee Gordon married. After graduation, the young couple landed yearlong teaching jobs in Barranquilla, Colombia. Tom taught art, and Juanita taught English, largely to Japanese students. She often reminisced about her cultural experiences in South America, from the curanderos who were summoned to preside over the disposal of highly venomous Bushmaster snakes found in their abode to the great affection she felt toward and received from her students. The couple also spent time among the artist community in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. It was a creatively prolific period for Tom, and a time of adventure for Juanita who said she remembered “laughing all the time” during her early years of marriage. Upon return to the US, Juanita and Tom briefly lived in Hamilton, Ohio and in New Jersey, where Juanita taught school until Tom fulfilled his military service. They settled in Hanover, Indiana where Tom taught at Hanover College, and Juanita taught at Jefferson County’s Dupont School. Their first daughter, Betsy, was born in Hanover.

In 1966 the couple, with toddler Betsy in tow, purchased a house in Ada, Ohio, which became Juanita’s forever home. Daughters Jenny and Peggy were born in nearby Lima, Ohio. Tom taught at Ohio Northern University, while Juanita raised their daughters and was a substitute teacher for local school districts. Summers were spent in Celina, Ohio, at the family’s cottage on Grand Lake St. Marys. Juanita’s deep-fried mushrooms, watermelon basket salads and homemade birthday cakes were much in demand at frequent porch parties with neighbors Mary and Bill Meikle and their daughters Beth and Martha, and Jim and Doree Glass and their children Dennis, Cathy and Cindy, all of whom were embraced as family members.

Following her divorce from Tom in 1980, Juanita earned her Masters Degree in Education Administration from University of Dayton while teaching English fulltime at Kenton High School and following her daughters across the country to watch them march in the Casper Troopers Drum and Bugle Corps. She was a consummate drum corps mom, providing corps meals which included Midwestern delicacies such as corn on the cob and her famous Ole Yellow Rolls. When taking a break from working and parenting, Juanita could be found chatting on the front porch swing or collecting cattails alongside rural roadsides with neighbor and best friend, Doris.

Juanita loved teaching and was a master at it because she kept an open mind, remained curious and continued to learn. She was particularly proud of instituting an artist residency program at Kenton High School which brought professional artists to work together with students. She also started and coached a quiz bowl team and loved team teaching and collaborating with colleagues to create a dynamic and engaging learning environment. She thought the world of the colleagues, principals and administrators she worked with at Kenton High School and Middle School. Years after retirement, she continued to imagine new ways to engage students in great literature and to teach them writing. Juanita was a gifted writer herself and, although she didn’t complete the stories she brainstormed and jotted on legal pads, she delighted all who received letters, cards or emails from her. Juanita also taught English in Marion Correctional Institute, a job she continued after retirement from public school. In retirement, she also worked at McDonald’s in Bluffton, Ohio and for the Census Bureau. After leaving these jobs, she occupied herself swimming several times a week with a group of friends and visiting her daughters in Port Clinton, OH, New York, NY, San Francisco, CA and Arlington, OH. She loved driving through local Amish country and purchasing Amish pies and pastries, quilts and furniture.

A lifelong, vocal progressive, Juanita was passionate about human rights, social justice, equality, education and the environment. She was proud of never missing an election, and of participating in protests in Tiffin, Ohio, New York City, and San Francisco. One of Juanita’s love languages was food, and in the tradition of her ancestors, no one ever left the dining table hungry. She will be remembered for her Ole Yellow Rolls, her delicious pies, and her perfection of Grandma Gordon’s Chocolate Cake.

Juanita had many interests and accomplishments, but above all, she loved her daughters. She rarely missed a concert, play or event in which her daughters were involved. She was never happier than when her three girls were together with her laughing, eating, and playing board games or accompanying her on shopping trips and rides through the country. She also deeply loved and enjoyed bantering with her sons-in-law, all of whom vied for the title of #1 son-in-law. Competitive and prone to FOMO (fear of missing out), Juanita enjoyed gloating over her board game wins and always stayed awake to ring in the new year.

Juanita lived passionately. She was opinionated, loyal, demanding and loving. She cared about all living beings, including struggling plants and flowers and the many cats and dogs of the family and neighborhood. She even loved the raccoons that occasionally let themselves into her house. She was less fond of the bats who intruded, but allowed her youngest daughter to catch and safely relocate them.

Juanita remained “sharp as a tack” and was able, with support, to live independently in the home in which she raised her daughters. Many thanks to Emilee Surber, Erika Rector and Sumner and Lux Good for their help. Juanita will be remembered by so, so many people, and will live forever in the hearts of her daughters and sons-in-law Betsy Gordon (Timothy Rice, deceased), Jenny Gordon (Yannis Cosmadopoulos) and Peggy Gordon (Tony Dyer, deceased), step-grandchild Sophia Cosmadopoulos, nieces and nephews, Gail (Hieb) Phillips (Neil), Billy Hieb (Becci), Michelle Hieb, Eric Allen, Brittany (Allen) Schultz (Zach), Austin Phillips (Haley), Logan Powell and Lindsay Powell and their families, as well as dearest friends Doris Francis and Angela Evans and their families and “adopted” sons Dorian Ross and Wyatt Vanhoy. She was preceded in death by her brother William “Bill” Hieb and niece Ginger Gaye (Hieb) Powell.

At her request, there was no funeral, but a celebration of life will be held May 16, 2026 from 2:00PM - 4:30PM at Center on Central in Ada, OH. Those wishing to honor her may do so through kindness to others or by planting a tree in her name or by donating to any of the following organizations: Doctors Without Borders, ACLU, Southern Poverty Law Center, National Audubon Society or Arbor Day Foundation.