Jodel Jean Blain

Jodel Jean Blain, 53, of Orlando, Florida passed away on Tuesday May 26, 2015. Jodel was born on July 28, 1961 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti to Edner and Yvonne Mirville Blain. Jodel was a commercial pilot who worked for Spirit Airlines. Jodel enjoyed traveling, the beach, flying model airplanes, and flying kites. But, most of all he enjoyed spending time with his family and friends. Jodel was preceded in death by his son Kenneth William Blain. He is survived by his parents Edner Blain and Yvonne Mirville Blain. wife Maribel Rodriguez, his daughter, Charlene Blain, grandchildren, Jordan, Kenneth Jr., and Jada, his brothers and sisters, Nadine Lundi, Carl Blain, Thierry Blain, Kelly Blain, Madlyn Blain, Richard Blain, and Alan Blain, maternal aunts, Raymonde Val and Marie- Flore, uncles, Wilfred Mirville, and Fritz Mirville, his paternal aunts, and uncles, Lucie, Marie, Oddette, Anne Marie, uncles, Gabriel, Bazaine, Maurice, Emmanuel, and Yvon. He is also survived by his nieces and nephews, Robert Jr., Randy, Georgenie, Jamie, Christopher, Jermaine, Kamali, James, Aleah, Amber, Donte, Kaelyn, Isaiah, Josiah, and Resharia. Visitation will be held on Monday June 1, 2015 from 6:00 to 8:00pm at Woodlawn Funeral Home 400 Woodlawn Cemetery Road, Gotha, Florida 34734. A Funeral Service will be held on Tuesday June 2, 2015 at Woodlawn Funeral Home with a Celebration of Life Reception to be held following the burial. Woodlawn Memorial Park & Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Jodel or Joe as he was known, was a caring, intelligent, quiet and private man. He was a devoted husband to his wife Maribel. He loved his family dearly, especially his children and grandchildren. Jodel was born on July 28, 1961 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti to Edner and Yvonne Mirville Blain. He left Haiti at a young age when the family moved to Brooklyn, New York. Joe was the second oldest in a family of eight. He grew up with seven other siblings, an older sister, Nadine, and six younger siblings, Carl, Thierry, Kelly, Madlyn, Richard and Alan.

As a young child Joe always knew he would fly. Anyone who knew Joe, knew how much he loved flying. You could see the excitement in his eyes and hear it in his voice, whenever he was explaining the different types of planes and their types of engines. That was his passion. As long as I can remember, he was either building model airplanes, flying model planes or building and flying model rockets. He would often go to the park with one or more of his brothers to fly his planes or launch his rockets. They would spend hours flying kites, model airplanes or launching rockets into the air. As a teenager and young adult he would also spend a lot of his time going to the hobby shops to find the latest model kits available. Joe was also an artist. He could precisely draw any airplane off the top of his head. Joe always excelled in school. He graduated from Edward R. Murrow High School Brooklyn New York (NY) and went on to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona. Although he could not complete his schooling there because of financial reasons, he did not let that stop him from reaching his goal of becoming a pilot. He never let anything stop him from reaching his goals.

Joe married his first wife and had two children, Charlene and Kenneth.

He went back to school, to the University of Central Florida, where he earned a B.S. in Engineering. He met the “love of his life”, his second wife, Maribel Rodriguez. He met her while working as a technician for IBM. Since that time they have been inseparable. This was 23 years ago.

He was a flight instructor at various airports around the country, including California and Florida, to earn enough hours to qualify as a commercial airline pilot. He went on to work with 3 commercial airlines with Spirit being the most recent.

He piloted the large commercial aircrafts, such as the Airbus (A) 319, 320, 321. Joe and Maribel loved to travel every chance they had. Their travels included Mexico, Hawaii, Barbados, Turks and Caicos and the Dominican Republic. Joe has also lived almost everywhere in Florida and in many places in the United States. Wherever he went, he always had his loving wife, "Bel" by his side. Although he loved flying, he loved his grandchildren more.

The current “twinkle” in his eye was his grandchildren Jordan, Kenny Jr. and Jada. Throughout his life, Joe touched the lives of many, giving and helping those he knew and loved. Joe leaves behind him a legacy of lifelong friendships, cherished memories and a family who will miss him deeply.