Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Gordon was the youngest daughter of Sarah Louise Crompton and James Harvey Mattice.

[4] After her father's retirement in 1903, Gordon chose to leave Hamilton to live with relatives on a 200-acre fruit farm near Chatham, Ontario.

Realizing this was a marketable skill, she decided to rent a studio to sell her unique china pieces and teach art to locals.

For a number of years Gordon worked as a teacher at the Hamilton Technical School, and was known to aggressively seek out exhibition opportunities.

She was named honorary president of the Contemporary Artists of Hamilton in 1948 and soon after joined the Painters Eleven as their oldest member in 1952.