Judith Rodriguez Potter

1948 - 2019

POTTER, JUDITH RODRIGUEZ Age 70, died Friday, April 12, 2019, after a three-year battle with ovarian cancer. She passed away quietly in hospice at her home in Coral Gables, Florida. Judith was born to Alfredo and Nereida Rodriguez on May 2, 1948, in Havana, Cuba, and was raised in the town of Los Palos. In 1970, she moved to the United States alone and settled in Los Angeles, where she received a degree from UCLA and worked at the Kaiser Permanente Hospital. In 1980, Judith returned to Cuba to retrieve her family during the Mariel boatlift. Together, they moved to Miami where Judith worked for ABC News, first as a secretary, then as a budget administrator. After transferring briefly to New York, Judith returned to Miami where she married Mark Potter in 1995. She earned two more college degrees in special education and became an elementary-school teacher. She ended her career as a highly-regarded teacher of learning-disabled preschoolers at Coconut Grove Elementary School. She loved music, fashion, travel, her family and spoke three languages fluently. Throughout her illness, Judith was supported fully and lovingly by her husband and her brother, Isaac Rodriguez. She is also survived by another brother, Alfredo Rodriguez; by her cousins Maria Emilia Faedo and Alessandra Ford; by her niece Crisdoerk Molina and grand-niece Stefany Molina. At Judith's and the family's request, there will be no public service, but we urge everyone to hold her in their prayers and thoughts. In lieu of flowers, we also request donations to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (Judith's favorite charity) or to the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance (ocrahope.org). After her difficult struggle, Judith is now at peace. But we, and the community, have lost one of the very best among us. Goodbye, sweet Judith. We will always love you.