Living Veteran’s Daughter

By Gould Hagler · Originally published January 2017 · p. 14

Pictured here is Iris Lee Gay Jordan, the daughter of Lewis Gay, who served as a private in the 4th Florida Infantry Regiment. Private Gay was captured early in the war and was imprisoned at Fort Delaware. After being exchanged, he returned to his regiment and fought in all the major battles of the western theater. He died at the age of 91 in 1931. Gay was 82 years old when his Iris was born. Her mother, Gay’s second wife, Minnie McLeod Gay, was 41. Minnie lived until 1973. Mrs. Jordan is still with us and is quite active. This photograph was taken in 2012 at the dedication of a Confederate monument in Dallas, Ga. On Mrs. Jordan’s left is Stevan Crew, a member of the William J. Hardee Camp # 1397 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which commissioned the monument. On her right is Gould Hagler, the author of Georgia’s Confederate Monuments: In Honor of a Fallen Nation.