Joseph Allen Blair

BLAIR, JOSEPH ALLEN, 88, entered the kingdom of heaven on November 16, 2020. He served as a dutiful employee of the Louisville Gas & Electric Company for forty years and professed his love for Christ at Friendship Separate Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. Joseph, ever strong, optimistic, and loving to his final day, lived a life that many will only ever hope to live. He stood by the side of the woman he loved, Chinetha Jane Vincent Blair, the mother of his children and his caring wife, for sixty-four years of marriage. Their love was one that witnessed its fair share of hardship, but never waivered in its mission to have and to hold and to honor and to cherish each other all the years of their life together. Their love for each other could only be surpassed by the love they had for their three children, Joseph Lyn Blair (Cheryl), Theresa Ann Shields (Ty) and Sheila Danell Gies (Michael), and for their six grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, and four great great-grandchildren. He shared a close bond with his sisters Lois Blair Hogan Turner and Gertrude Blair Maddox. Joseph will be remembered as an accomplished man whose life began in Depression Era Edmonson County, Kentucky on February 12, 1932. Joseph was named in honor of the two police officers, Joseph and Allen, who rendered aid to his mother during his birth. Joseph arrived early in the back of their police car as they rushed his mother to the hospital. His father Elias Ward Blair, an honorable veteran of the First World War, and his mother Candis Parsley Blair, a devout Christian, never failed to remind their son Joe that he shared a birthday with Abraham Lincoln and that he should live up to the Kentuckian’s example. Joseph set the standard for work ethic, integrity, and chasing the American Dream. A lifelong Republican, he often proudly recalled casting his first vote for President Eisenhower in 1952 and championed President Ronald Reagan’s reforms as having a major impact on his life. During President Carter’s visit to the Cane Run Road Louisville Gas and Electric Plant in the 1970s, Joseph only jokingly recalled that he “wouldn’t cross the parking lot” to shake President Carter’s hand. Other than the occasional grumble about this or that politician, he never complained and looked to the sunny side of life. His roots in the fiercely independent spirit of rural Kentucky, his care for his fellow man learned during his seventy years as a Master Freemason, his small businessman acumen as the owner of Blair’s Gulf on Taylor Boulevard, his competitive spirit earned on the racetrack during his stock car racing days at the Louisville Fair Grounds, and his dedication to God, his family, and his country will not soon be forgotten. We could all learn a thing or two from Joe Blair. Funeral services will be Thursday, November 19th at Noon at Owen Funeral Home 5317 Dixie Highway with burial at Highland Memory Gardens, Mt. Washington, KY. Visitation will be Noon – 7:00pm on Wednesday, November 18th and from 11:00am – Noon on Thursday, November 19th. We ask that any flowers sent come in shades of blue and white so that Joseph can cheer on the Wildcats one more time.

Joseph Allen Blair

February 12, 1932 - November 16, 2020