Joe was born in Roanoke, Alabama, on 24 January 1917. The Wright Brothers first flight was “history” for only 13 years, and the Panama Canal had been in use less than 2-1/2. Women “got the vote” when he was 3, but the big news came when Joe was 10: Lindbergh flew solo across the Atlantic.

It’s only conjecture now, but Lindbergh’s amazing feat might have been the spark that started this 10-year-old thinking about aviation. When Joe was 15, he learned to fly in a cow pasture west of Winter Park, Florida, earning money for lessons by selling honey for his dad. Flying lessons were $7 per hour for airplane [Aeronca C-3] & instructor. (Before he soloed on 23 June 1932, he had 4 hrs 55 min of dual… so that would have cost him almost $35.)

Joe got his instructor’s rating in Gainesville in April 1942 in a Waco UPF-7 and began instructing immediately after that for the Army at Lodwick Field in Lakeland. He was voluntarily inducted into the Army Air Corps and continued instructing in the Stearman PT-17 (primary training through formation flying and aerobatics) until November 1944. He taught 101 students, passing about 2/3 of them. He said the most difficult thing was telling a student he wasn’t going to make it.

He started his career with Eastern Air Lines in December 1944 in the Douglas DC-3. (Joe has about 60 hours in the DC-3 hanging in the National Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC... about half as co-pilot & half as captain.) He went on to fly the DC-4, DC-6, Martin 404, Lockheed Constellation, DC-7, Lockheed Electra, DC-8, Boeing 727, & Lockheed 1011. On his last EAL flight, 21 January 1977 (photo below), he greased the 1011 on so smoothly you couldn’t tell when the wheels were on the ground... and that was from eyewitness accounts! (It was the kind of landing pilots dream about!) -- When he hung up his wings in 1982, he had 27,000 hours of flying time over the 50-year span.

Joe and his wife Gurney were active members of First Baptist Church of Orlando for many years. When she passed away on Joe’s 90th birthday, they had been married for over 68 years. They had 4 children, 11 grandchildren, and 26 great-grandchildren, plus 1 more on the way in 2012, when he passed away on 6 May in Lynchburg, Virginia, at age 95.

During his final years, this loving and faithful patriarch was surrounded by many of his great-grandchildren, who affectionately called him “GGG” (Great-Grandpa Grafton).