The following is the tribute given at Jim's Memorial Service, spoken in turn by each of his beloved daughters.
Jim Reid Lee was born September 18, 1930 in Jasper, Florida.
His parents were Jay Gould Lee and Geanie Mae Reid Lee
He attended schools in Jasper and Tallahassee, graduating from Leon High School in Tallahassee in June 1948. Jim was born with very poor vision, causing him to need extremely thick glasses. This went uncorrected until he was 18 years old, yet never stopped him from doing anything he put his mind to. Jim was a hard worker from an early age, working at various jobs to help support his mom, including selling pillows to passengers at the Greyhound bus station.
While in high school, he belonged to Future Farmers of America, an organization which strives to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education. One FFA project involved learning how to harvest the sap from pine trees. During the summers, Jim lived with his maternal uncle, Harry T. Reid, working for him in the family funeral home business.
He attended Florida State University from 1948 to about 1950, During that time, in history class he ;met a lovely young lady named "Mickey" Fogarty of Sarasota, Florida. Their first date came about during Thanksgiving break when Mickey couldn't go home for the holiday. Jim took her to dinner at a Tallaassee Greek restaurant and a relationship that would span more than 60 years was born. Jim then attended the University of Florida from 1950 to 1951, at which time he enlisted in the United States Army.
He was married in Sarasota, Florida December 23, 1952 to Marjorie Nell "Mickey" Fogarty.
He served in the U. S. Army from 1951 to 1955, and was discharged honorably at the rank of Sergeant. For much of his army time he was stationed at Fort Meyer in Arlington Hall, Virginia. After their marriage, Mickey worked at the District of Columbia Public Library. Jim served in the mess hall for a time and also later served in the field of cryptography, which is the conversion of information into a secret code for transmission over a public network. He was in the reserves for several more years after discharge from the army.
After being discharged from he army he returned to the University of Florida from 1955 to 1956, graduating in the field of Agriculture in June of 1956 with a Bachelor of Science degree. He saw job opportunities on a bulletin board and found out about a job opportunity in Cuba with International Harvester Company on their fiber plantation. He got the job and when he and Mickey arrived in Cuba there was a baby on the way.
The La Conchita Ranch, near Varadaero, Cuba produced henequen which in appearance is much like a century plant. When harvested, the fiber would be removed and used to make rope.
Upon arrival in Cuba, Jim took daily classes to learn Spanish and became fluent in conversational Spanish rapidly.
Jim and Mickey enjoyed entertaining friends and family who would fly down to Cuba for a visit. Cuba is very close, and many Americans would vacation there, enjoying the tropical paradise. As an avid fisherman, Jim had several special spots for fishing, including one well known location we now know as The Bay of Pigs.
While living on the Cuban plantation, two daughters were born to him and his wife.
While the Lee family enjoyed a pleasant daily routine, the revolution in Cuba was beginning. Fidel Castro was leading his people in the farther regions of the island, but this fortunately did not affect life so much in the area in which the family was living.
In April 1958 he was transferred to International Harvester's Philippine fiber plantation on Mindanao Island. The Company kindly sent the Lee family to the Philippines on the ocean liner the SS President Hoover. Had the family gone by plane, Jim and Mickey would have been on the plane for 58 hours with two little ones under the age of 18 months. The youngest child was four months old when the voyage began and learned to crawl on the deck of the ship.
Jim and his family arrived in the Philippines and traveled to the island of Mindanao, arriving at the "Odell Plantation," also called "Hijo Plantation." The crop in the Philippines was and is called abaca, a form of hemp resembling a banana plant. Shortly after arrival, the Plantation manager killed a king cobra. Jim and Mickey posed with the dead snake which was longer than a Jeep only to find out later that the manager's camera had no film. Cobras were everywhere. Jim would go out into the fields every day and see numerous cobras. Jim had to work many hours often rising before 4:30 in the morning to inspect the hundreds and hundreds of acres of crops for disease, eradicate and burn diseased plants, help oversee and manage employees, and keep the fiber processing plant running.
He and the family left International Harvester and the Philippines in October 1960, returning to the United States again by ocean liner and arriving in San Francisco the day after election day in 1960.
After returning to the United States, the family settled in Tallahassee, Florida. Jim's stepdad, Leonard Singleton, built a lovely home for the young family.
In Tallahassee he was employed by the Florida Development Commission from 1961 to about 1963, then by the Florida Department of Agriculture from 1963 until his retirement in 1985. Early in his career with the Department of Agriculture, he worked with the Department of Agriculture's cameras for publicity of agriculture products. On the side during that time he took wedding pictures of several co-workers, and enjoyed making photos of the family. At one time he was also assigned to the Department's emergency management planning, again learning a lot about something new in a short period of time.
Jim did quite a bit of traveling out of town for the Florida Department of Agriculture in his position within the Marketing Division, including setting up displays in grocery stores and helping to organize the annual Florida Festival of Foods.
During the energy shortage in the 1970'2 Jim was assigned to researching the development of sources of methanol fuel from agricultural products. In a very brief time he became knowledgeable in that field, and made several trips in the United States and Latin American countries about making methanol from corn, cane and other plants. The family Ford pickup truck was retro-fitted to burn methanol, and had a large sign on the back of it to that effect.
Jim worked hard and on weekends he fished and hunted a lot. Most vacations would involve fishing.
In the 1960's he was involved in Dog Obedience Training, training the family German Shepherd "Shana", and at one time was president of the Tallahassee Dog Obedience Club.
Many times, when wild hog hunting, his hog dogs would be injured by the wild hogs. Jim did his own veterinary work on the dogs, including giving them shots, and sewing up the gashes received from sharp hog tusks.
Jim and Mickey's third daughter was born in Tallahassee in 1968.
Jim and a good friend started a construction company, VaLee Construction, taking great pride in the work they did.The family did tent camping for several years. Because putting up and taking down a tent became tiresome, Jim, with the help of his good friend, constructed an 18 foot travel trailer from the chassis up, working on it in the driveway. Jim and Mickey both designed the interior, utilizing every square inch of space, and Mickey sewed all of the curtains and cushion covers in a most professional manner. In appearance one would not know that it was not factory built. The family did of lot of camping in that trailer for many years, even making a trip to Yellowstone and other western sites, including New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and the Grand Canyon. All three daughters have memories of Daddy changing lots of tire blowouts, being stranded in the desert, and worrying when Jim had to hitchhike 50 miles to Flagstaff, Arizona to get help help for the broken down car.
Jim had a life-altering experience when, in the fall of 1974 he was preparing for a hunting trip. His Ruger .44 Magnum pistol slipped out of its holster, hit an open dresser drawer and went off, striking him in his left forearm with a jacketed hollowpoint bullet. The bullet blew away four inches of one bone and shattered the other bone. He was rushed to the hospital and received emergency treatment.
Jim's life was never the same again, yet he was able to overcome the adversity of a crippled arm and went on to lead as normal a life as possible. A neighbor theorized that the trajectory of the bullet might have landed it up on the rooftop. The neighbor climbed up on the roof and, sure enough, the bullet was still there.
He loved most of all in life hunting and fishing, and he and Mickey enjoyed gospel sings and square dancing. The day after his retirement, when Jim was 55 years old, he left for Mexico in the family pickup truck, with boat and trailer, accompanied by his German Shepherd Dog Jake. The truck had been outfitted as a makeshift camper, and he went off, with almost no knowledge of Mexico and no itinerary, to locate good fishing places in Mexico. In subsequent years he made several trips back to his favorite Mexican fishing spot on Lake Guerrero, with friends as well as his son-in-law. For a while early on in retirement he also worked at Wal-Mart as a greeter.
Jim and Mickey led a full retirement. They drove all the way to Alaska and back, fishing out there on the Kenai Peninsula. When they visited Israel they found that one trip wasn't enough so they went back again several years later.
It was fortunate for Jim that he retired early. By the time he was 65, he started having many health problems, including multiple back surgeries, diabetes and issues with severe pain. Despite these difficulties, he never gave up his desire to continue fishing or his hope of having another boat.
We, as his daughters have many,many good memories of our Dad. Even in his final years he still remembered how to speak Spanish as well as Tagalog, a Philippine dialect, even reading and translating a Spanish language birthday card he received just the year before his death. Few people know that prior to his gunshot accident Dad played the piano and the mandolin.
He loved covered dish dinners, and always brought a plate of desserts home. He really liked honey buns accompanied by chocolate milk, which became a traditional snack whenever we were on a road trip. When the oldest daughter was a toddler he would pick her up and carry her around upside down. We remember him training the dogs in the back yard in agility exercises. We remember seeing him gut and dress hogs and deer, fixing boat motors and taking us hunting and fishing with him. Dad was always proud of all of us, regardless of how horrible we were. We remember snuggling next to him on the couch, watching scary movies on television, and how he made peanut butter shakes. Dad was always supportive of Mom's activities and interests. She handled the money and he always trusted her handling of it. When the occasional disagreement occurred, there was no retribution, grudge holding or punitiveness. He worked hard to provide a good life for his family.
Daddy had more lives than ten cats put together. In his lifetime he suffered at least two gunshot wounds, numerous broken bones, multiple life threatening illnesses, multiple falls, one of which involved a circular saw. We used to refer to him as the "Energizer Bunny" because no matter what happened, he would just keep on going.When Dad was about six years old his parents were divorced and not much later Jay Lee died unexpectedly. Dad carried the pain of growing up fatherless with him his whole life. Despite his inner and outer pain, he did the very best he could to be a loving father and husband.
We will love him and miss him always.
Jim Reid Lee was born September 18, 1930 in Jasper, Florida.
His parents were Jay Gould Lee and Geanie Mae Reid Lee
He attended schools in Jasper and Tallahassee, graduating from Leon High School in Tallahassee in June 1948. Jim was born with very poor vision, causing him to need extremely thick glasses. This went uncorrected until he was 18 years old, yet never stopped him from doing anything he put his mind to. Jim was a hard worker from an early age, working at various jobs to help support his mom, including selling pillows to passengers at the Greyhound bus station.
While in high school, he belonged to Future Farmers of America, an organization which strives to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education. One FFA project involved learning how to harvest the sap from pine trees. During the summers, Jim lived with his maternal uncle, Harry T. Reid, working for him in the family funeral home business.
He attended Florida State University from 1948 to about 1950, During that time, in history class he ;met a lovely young lady named "Mickey" Fogarty of Sarasota, Florida. Their first date came about during Thanksgiving break when Mickey couldn't go home for the holiday. Jim took her to dinner at a Tallaassee Greek restaurant and a relationship that would span more than 60 years was born. Jim then attended the University of Florida from 1950 to 1951, at which time he enlisted in the United States Army.
He was married in Sarasota, Florida December 23, 1952 to Marjorie Nell "Mickey" Fogarty.
He served in the U. S. Army from 1951 to 1955, and was discharged honorably at the rank of Sergeant. For much of his army time he was stationed at Fort Meyer in Arlington Hall, Virginia. After their marriage, Mickey worked at the District of Columbia Public Library. Jim served in the mess hall for a time and also later served in the field of cryptography, which is the conversion of information into a secret code for transmission over a public network. He was in the reserves for several more years after discharge from the army.
After being discharged from he army he returned to the University of Florida from 1955 to 1956, graduating in the field of Agriculture in June of 1956 with a Bachelor of Science degree. He saw job opportunities on a bulletin board and found out about a job opportunity in Cuba with International Harvester Company on their fiber plantation. He got the job and when he and Mickey arrived in Cuba there was a baby on the way.
The La Conchita Ranch, near Varadaero, Cuba produced henequen which in appearance is much like a century plant. When harvested, the fiber would be removed and used to make rope.
Upon arrival in Cuba, Jim took daily classes to learn Spanish and became fluent in conversational Spanish rapidly.
Jim and Mickey enjoyed entertaining friends and family who would fly down to Cuba for a visit. Cuba is very close, and many Americans would vacation there, enjoying the tropical paradise. As an avid fisherman, Jim had several special spots for fishing, including one well known location we now know as The Bay of Pigs.
While living on the Cuban plantation, two daughters were born to him and his wife.
While the Lee family enjoyed a pleasant daily routine, the revolution in Cuba was beginning. Fidel Castro was leading his people in the farther regions of the island, but this fortunately did not affect life so much in the area in which the family was living.
In April 1958 he was transferred to International Harvester's Philippine fiber plantation on Mindanao Island. The Company kindly sent the Lee family to the Philippines on the ocean liner the SS President Hoover. Had the family gone by plane, Jim and Mickey would have been on the plane for 58 hours with two little ones under the age of 18 months. The youngest child was four months old when the voyage began and learned to crawl on the deck of the ship.
Jim and his family arrived in the Philippines and traveled to the island of Mindanao, arriving at the "Odell Plantation," also called "Hijo Plantation." The crop in the Philippines was and is called abaca, a form of hemp resembling a banana plant. Shortly after arrival, the Plantation manager killed a king cobra. Jim and Mickey posed with the dead snake which was longer than a Jeep only to find out later that the manager's camera had no film. Cobras were everywhere. Jim would go out into the fields every day and see numerous cobras. Jim had to work many hours often rising before 4:30 in the morning to inspect the hundreds and hundreds of acres of crops for disease, eradicate and burn diseased plants, help oversee and manage employees, and keep the fiber processing plant running.
He and the family left International Harvester and the Philippines in October 1960, returning to the United States again by ocean liner and arriving in San Francisco the day after election day in 1960.
After returning to the United States, the family settled in Tallahassee, Florida. Jim's stepdad, Leonard Singleton, built a lovely home for the young family.
In Tallahassee he was employed by the Florida Development Commission from 1961 to about 1963, then by the Florida Department of Agriculture from 1963 until his retirement in 1985. Early in his career with the Department of Agriculture, he worked with the Department of Agriculture's cameras for publicity of agriculture products. On the side during that time he took wedding pictures of several co-workers, and enjoyed making photos of the family. At one time he was also assigned to the Department's emergency management planning, again learning a lot about something new in a short period of time.
Jim did quite a bit of traveling out of town for the Florida Department of Agriculture in his position within the Marketing Division, including setting up displays in grocery stores and helping to organize the annual Florida Festival of Foods.
During the energy shortage in the 1970'2 Jim was assigned to researching the development of sources of methanol fuel from agricultural products. In a very brief time he became knowledgeable in that field, and made several trips in the United States and Latin American countries about making methanol from corn, cane and other plants. The family Ford pickup truck was retro-fitted to burn methanol, and had a large sign on the back of it to that effect.
Jim worked hard and on weekends he fished and hunted a lot. Most vacations would involve fishing.
In the 1960's he was involved in Dog Obedience Training, training the family German Shepherd "Shana", and at one time was president of the Tallahassee Dog Obedience Club.
Many times, when wild hog hunting, his hog dogs would be injured by the wild hogs. Jim did his own veterinary work on the dogs, including giving them shots, and sewing up the gashes received from sharp hog tusks.
Jim and Mickey's third daughter was born in Tallahassee in 1968.
Jim and a good friend started a construction company, VaLee Construction, taking great pride in the work they did.The family did tent camping for several years. Because putting up and taking down a tent became tiresome, Jim, with the help of his good friend, constructed an 18 foot travel trailer from the chassis up, working on it in the driveway. Jim and Mickey both designed the interior, utilizing every square inch of space, and Mickey sewed all of the curtains and cushion covers in a most professional manner. In appearance one would not know that it was not factory built. The family did of lot of camping in that trailer for many years, even making a trip to Yellowstone and other western sites, including New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and the Grand Canyon. All three daughters have memories of Daddy changing lots of tire blowouts, being stranded in the desert, and worrying when Jim had to hitchhike 50 miles to Flagstaff, Arizona to get help help for the broken down car.
Jim had a life-altering experience when, in the fall of 1974 he was preparing for a hunting trip. His Ruger .44 Magnum pistol slipped out of its holster, hit an open dresser drawer and went off, striking him in his left forearm with a jacketed hollowpoint bullet. The bullet blew away four inches of one bone and shattered the other bone. He was rushed to the hospital and received emergency treatment.
Jim's life was never the same again, yet he was able to overcome the adversity of a crippled arm and went on to lead as normal a life as possible. A neighbor theorized that the trajectory of the bullet might have landed it up on the rooftop. The neighbor climbed up on the roof and, sure enough, the bullet was still there.
He loved most of all in life hunting and fishing, and he and Mickey enjoyed gospel sings and square dancing. The day after his retirement, when Jim was 55 years old, he left for Mexico in the family pickup truck, with boat and trailer, accompanied by his German Shepherd Dog Jake. The truck had been outfitted as a makeshift camper, and he went off, with almost no knowledge of Mexico and no itinerary, to locate good fishing places in Mexico. In subsequent years he made several trips back to his favorite Mexican fishing spot on Lake Guerrero, with friends as well as his son-in-law. For a while early on in retirement he also worked at Wal-Mart as a greeter.
Jim and Mickey led a full retirement. They drove all the way to Alaska and back, fishing out there on the Kenai Peninsula. When they visited Israel they found that one trip wasn't enough so they went back again several years later.
It was fortunate for Jim that he retired early. By the time he was 65, he started having many health problems, including multiple back surgeries, diabetes and issues with severe pain. Despite these difficulties, he never gave up his desire to continue fishing or his hope of having another boat.
We, as his daughters have many,many good memories of our Dad. Even in his final years he still remembered how to speak Spanish as well as Tagalog, a Philippine dialect, even reading and translating a Spanish language birthday card he received just the year before his death. Few people know that prior to his gunshot accident Dad played the piano and the mandolin.
He loved covered dish dinners, and always brought a plate of desserts home. He really liked honey buns accompanied by chocolate milk, which became a traditional snack whenever we were on a road trip. When the oldest daughter was a toddler he would pick her up and carry her around upside down. We remember him training the dogs in the back yard in agility exercises. We remember seeing him gut and dress hogs and deer, fixing boat motors and taking us hunting and fishing with him. Dad was always proud of all of us, regardless of how horrible we were. We remember snuggling next to him on the couch, watching scary movies on television, and how he made peanut butter shakes. Dad was always supportive of Mom's activities and interests. She handled the money and he always trusted her handling of it. When the occasional disagreement occurred, there was no retribution, grudge holding or punitiveness. He worked hard to provide a good life for his family.
Daddy had more lives than ten cats put together. In his lifetime he suffered at least two gunshot wounds, numerous broken bones, multiple life threatening illnesses, multiple falls, one of which involved a circular saw. We used to refer to him as the "Energizer Bunny" because no matter what happened, he would just keep on going.When Dad was about six years old his parents were divorced and not much later Jay Lee died unexpectedly. Dad carried the pain of growing up fatherless with him his whole life. Despite his inner and outer pain, he did the very best he could to be a loving father and husband.
We will love him and miss him always.
The following is the tribute given at Jim's Memorial Service, spoken in turn by each of his beloved daughters.
Jim Reid Lee was born September 18, 1930 in Jasper, Florida.
His parents were Jay Gould Lee and Geanie Mae Reid Lee
He attended schools in Jasper and Tallahassee, graduating from Leon High School in Tallahassee in June 1948. Jim was born with very poor vision, causing him to need extremely thick glasses. This went uncorrected until he was 18 years old, yet never stopped him from doing anything he put his mind to. Jim was a hard worker from an early age, working at various jobs to help support his mom, including selling pillows to passengers at the Greyhound bus station.
While in high school, he belonged to Future Farmers of America, an organization which strives to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education. One FFA project involved learning how to harvest the sap from pine trees. During the summers, Jim lived with his maternal uncle, Harry T. Reid, working for him in the family funeral home business.
He attended Florida State University from 1948 to about 1950, During that time, in history class he ;met a lovely young lady named "Mickey" Fogarty of Sarasota, Florida. Their first date came about during Thanksgiving break when Mickey couldn't go home for the holiday. Jim took her to dinner at a Tallaassee Greek restaurant and a relationship that would span more than 60 years was born. Jim then attended the University of Florida from 1950 to 1951, at which time he enlisted in the United States Army.
He was married in Sarasota, Florida December 23, 1952 to Marjorie Nell "Mickey" Fogarty.
He served in the U. S. Army from 1951 to 1955, and was discharged honorably at the rank of Sergeant. For much of his army time he was stationed at Fort Meyer in Arlington Hall, Virginia. After their marriage, Mickey worked at the District of Columbia Public Library. Jim served in the mess hall for a time and also later served in the field of cryptography, which is the conversion of information into a secret code for transmission over a public network. He was in the reserves for several more years after discharge from the army.
After being discharged from he army he returned to the University of Florida from 1955 to 1956, graduating in the field of Agriculture in June of 1956 with a Bachelor of Science degree. He saw job opportunities on a bulletin board and found out about a job opportunity in Cuba with International Harvester Company on their fiber plantation. He got the job and when he and Mickey arrived in Cuba there was a baby on the way.
The La Conchita Ranch, near Varadaero, Cuba produced henequen which in appearance is much like a century plant. When harvested, the fiber would be removed and used to make rope.
Upon arrival in Cuba, Jim took daily classes to learn Spanish and became fluent in conversational Spanish rapidly.
Jim and Mickey enjoyed entertaining friends and family who would fly down to Cuba for a visit. Cuba is very close, and many Americans would vacation there, enjoying the tropical paradise. As an avid fisherman, Jim had several special spots for fishing, including one well known location we now know as The Bay of Pigs.
While living on the Cuban plantation, two daughters were born to him and his wife.
While the Lee family enjoyed a pleasant daily routine, the revolution in Cuba was beginning. Fidel Castro was leading his people in the farther regions of the island, but this fortunately did not affect life so much in the area in which the family was living.
In April 1958 he was transferred to International Harvester's Philippine fiber plantation on Mindanao Island. The Company kindly sent the Lee family to the Philippines on the ocean liner the SS President Hoover. Had the family gone by plane, Jim and Mickey would have been on the plane for 58 hours with two little ones under the age of 18 months. The youngest child was four months old when the voyage began and learned to crawl on the deck of the ship.
Jim and his family arrived in the Philippines and traveled to the island of Mindanao, arriving at the "Odell Plantation," also called "Hijo Plantation." The crop in the Philippines was and is called abaca, a form of hemp resembling a banana plant. Shortly after arrival, the Plantation manager killed a king cobra. Jim and Mickey posed with the dead snake which was longer than a Jeep only to find out later that the manager's camera had no film. Cobras were everywhere. Jim would go out into the fields every day and see numerous cobras. Jim had to work many hours often rising before 4:30 in the morning to inspect the hundreds and hundreds of acres of crops for disease, eradicate and burn diseased plants, help oversee and manage employees, and keep the fiber processing plant running.
He and the family left International Harvester and the Philippines in October 1960, returning to the United States again by ocean liner and arriving in San Francisco the day after election day in 1960.
After returning to the United States, the family settled in Tallahassee, Florida. Jim's stepdad, Leonard Singleton, built a lovely home for the young family.
In Tallahassee he was employed by the Florida Development Commission from 1961 to about 1963, then by the Florida Department of Agriculture from 1963 until his retirement in 1985. Early in his career with the Department of Agriculture, he worked with the Department of Agriculture's cameras for publicity of agriculture products. On the side during that time he took wedding pictures of several co-workers, and enjoyed making photos of the family. At one time he was also assigned to the Department's emergency management planning, again learning a lot about something new in a short period of time.
Jim did quite a bit of traveling out of town for the Florida Department of Agriculture in his position within the Marketing Division, including setting up displays in grocery stores and helping to organize the annual Florida Festival of Foods.
During the energy shortage in the 1970'2 Jim was assigned to researching the development of sources of methanol fuel from agricultural products. In a very brief time he became knowledgeable in that field, and made several trips in the United States and Latin American countries about making methanol from corn, cane and other plants. The family Ford pickup truck was retro-fitted to burn methanol, and had a large sign on the back of it to that effect.
Jim worked hard and on weekends he fished and hunted a lot. Most vacations would involve fishing.
In the 1960's he was involved in Dog Obedience Training, training the family German Shepherd "Shana", and at one time was president of the Tallahassee Dog Obedience Club.
Many times, when wild hog hunting, his hog dogs would be injured by the wild hogs. Jim did his own veterinary work on the dogs, including giving them shots, and sewing up the gashes received from sharp hog tusks.
Jim and Mickey's third daughter was born in Tallahassee in 1968.
Jim and a good friend started a construction company, VaLee Construction, taking great pride in the work they did.The family did tent camping for several years. Because putting up and taking down a tent became tiresome, Jim, with the help of his good friend, constructed an 18 foot travel trailer from the chassis up, working on it in the driveway. Jim and Mickey both designed the interior, utilizing every square inch of space, and Mickey sewed all of the curtains and cushion covers in a most professional manner. In appearance one would not know that it was not factory built. The family did of lot of camping in that trailer for many years, even making a trip to Yellowstone and other western sites, including New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and the Grand Canyon. All three daughters have memories of Daddy changing lots of tire blowouts, being stranded in the desert, and worrying when Jim had to hitchhike 50 miles to Flagstaff, Arizona to get help help for the broken down car.
Jim had a life-altering experience when, in the fall of 1974 he was preparing for a hunting trip. His Ruger .44 Magnum pistol slipped out of its holster, hit an open dresser drawer and went off, striking him in his left forearm with a jacketed hollowpoint bullet. The bullet blew away four inches of one bone and shattered the other bone. He was rushed to the hospital and received emergency treatment.
Jim's life was never the same again, yet he was able to overcome the adversity of a crippled arm and went on to lead as normal a life as possible. A neighbor theorized that the trajectory of the bullet might have landed it up on the rooftop. The neighbor climbed up on the roof and, sure enough, the bullet was still there.
He loved most of all in life hunting and fishing, and he and Mickey enjoyed gospel sings and square dancing. The day after his retirement, when Jim was 55 years old, he left for Mexico in the family pickup truck, with boat and trailer, accompanied by his German Shepherd Dog Jake. The truck had been outfitted as a makeshift camper, and he went off, with almost no knowledge of Mexico and no itinerary, to locate good fishing places in Mexico. In subsequent years he made several trips back to his favorite Mexican fishing spot on Lake Guerrero, with friends as well as his son-in-law. For a while early on in retirement he also worked at Wal-Mart as a greeter.
Jim and Mickey led a full retirement. They drove all the way to Alaska and back, fishing out there on the Kenai Peninsula. When they visited Israel they found that one trip wasn't enough so they went back again several years later.
It was fortunate for Jim that he retired early. By the time he was 65, he started having many health problems, including multiple back surgeries, diabetes and issues with severe pain. Despite these difficulties, he never gave up his desire to continue fishing or his hope of having another boat.
We, as his daughters have many,many good memories of our Dad. Even in his final years he still remembered how to speak Spanish as well as Tagalog, a Philippine dialect, even reading and translating a Spanish language birthday card he received just the year before his death. Few people know that prior to his gunshot accident Dad played the piano and the mandolin.
He loved covered dish dinners, and always brought a plate of desserts home. He really liked honey buns accompanied by chocolate milk, which became a traditional snack whenever we were on a road trip. When the oldest daughter was a toddler he would pick her up and carry her around upside down. We remember him training the dogs in the back yard in agility exercises. We remember seeing him gut and dress hogs and deer, fixing boat motors and taking us hunting and fishing with him. Dad was always proud of all of us, regardless of how horrible we were. We remember snuggling next to him on the couch, watching scary movies on television, and how he made peanut butter shakes. Dad was always supportive of Mom's activities and interests. She handled the money and he always trusted her handling of it. When the occasional disagreement occurred, there was no retribution, grudge holding or punitiveness. He worked hard to provide a good life for his family.
Daddy had more lives than ten cats put together. In his lifetime he suffered at least two gunshot wounds, numerous broken bones, multiple life threatening illnesses, multiple falls, one of which involved a circular saw. We used to refer to him as the "Energizer Bunny" because no matter what happened, he would just keep on going.When Dad was about six years old his parents were divorced and not much later Jay Lee died unexpectedly. Dad carried the pain of growing up fatherless with him his whole life. Despite his inner and outer pain, he did the very best he could to be a loving father and husband.
We will love him and miss him always.
Jim Reid Lee was born September 18, 1930 in Jasper, Florida.
His parents were Jay Gould Lee and Geanie Mae Reid Lee
He attended schools in Jasper and Tallahassee, graduating from Leon High School in Tallahassee in June 1948. Jim was born with very poor vision, causing him to need extremely thick glasses. This went uncorrected until he was 18 years old, yet never stopped him from doing anything he put his mind to. Jim was a hard worker from an early age, working at various jobs to help support his mom, including selling pillows to passengers at the Greyhound bus station.
While in high school, he belonged to Future Farmers of America, an organization which strives to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education. One FFA project involved learning how to harvest the sap from pine trees. During the summers, Jim lived with his maternal uncle, Harry T. Reid, working for him in the family funeral home business.
He attended Florida State University from 1948 to about 1950, During that time, in history class he ;met a lovely young lady named "Mickey" Fogarty of Sarasota, Florida. Their first date came about during Thanksgiving break when Mickey couldn't go home for the holiday. Jim took her to dinner at a Tallaassee Greek restaurant and a relationship that would span more than 60 years was born. Jim then attended the University of Florida from 1950 to 1951, at which time he enlisted in the United States Army.
He was married in Sarasota, Florida December 23, 1952 to Marjorie Nell "Mickey" Fogarty.
He served in the U. S. Army from 1951 to 1955, and was discharged honorably at the rank of Sergeant. For much of his army time he was stationed at Fort Meyer in Arlington Hall, Virginia. After their marriage, Mickey worked at the District of Columbia Public Library. Jim served in the mess hall for a time and also later served in the field of cryptography, which is the conversion of information into a secret code for transmission over a public network. He was in the reserves for several more years after discharge from the army.
After being discharged from he army he returned to the University of Florida from 1955 to 1956, graduating in the field of Agriculture in June of 1956 with a Bachelor of Science degree. He saw job opportunities on a bulletin board and found out about a job opportunity in Cuba with International Harvester Company on their fiber plantation. He got the job and when he and Mickey arrived in Cuba there was a baby on the way.
The La Conchita Ranch, near Varadaero, Cuba produced henequen which in appearance is much like a century plant. When harvested, the fiber would be removed and used to make rope.
Upon arrival in Cuba, Jim took daily classes to learn Spanish and became fluent in conversational Spanish rapidly.
Jim and Mickey enjoyed entertaining friends and family who would fly down to Cuba for a visit. Cuba is very close, and many Americans would vacation there, enjoying the tropical paradise. As an avid fisherman, Jim had several special spots for fishing, including one well known location we now know as The Bay of Pigs.
While living on the Cuban plantation, two daughters were born to him and his wife.
While the Lee family enjoyed a pleasant daily routine, the revolution in Cuba was beginning. Fidel Castro was leading his people in the farther regions of the island, but this fortunately did not affect life so much in the area in which the family was living.
In April 1958 he was transferred to International Harvester's Philippine fiber plantation on Mindanao Island. The Company kindly sent the Lee family to the Philippines on the ocean liner the SS President Hoover. Had the family gone by plane, Jim and Mickey would have been on the plane for 58 hours with two little ones under the age of 18 months. The youngest child was four months old when the voyage began and learned to crawl on the deck of the ship.
Jim and his family arrived in the Philippines and traveled to the island of Mindanao, arriving at the "Odell Plantation," also called "Hijo Plantation." The crop in the Philippines was and is called abaca, a form of hemp resembling a banana plant. Shortly after arrival, the Plantation manager killed a king cobra. Jim and Mickey posed with the dead snake which was longer than a Jeep only to find out later that the manager's camera had no film. Cobras were everywhere. Jim would go out into the fields every day and see numerous cobras. Jim had to work many hours often rising before 4:30 in the morning to inspect the hundreds and hundreds of acres of crops for disease, eradicate and burn diseased plants, help oversee and manage employees, and keep the fiber processing plant running.
He and the family left International Harvester and the Philippines in October 1960, returning to the United States again by ocean liner and arriving in San Francisco the day after election day in 1960.
After returning to the United States, the family settled in Tallahassee, Florida. Jim's stepdad, Leonard Singleton, built a lovely home for the young family.
In Tallahassee he was employed by the Florida Development Commission from 1961 to about 1963, then by the Florida Department of Agriculture from 1963 until his retirement in 1985. Early in his career with the Department of Agriculture, he worked with the Department of Agriculture's cameras for publicity of agriculture products. On the side during that time he took wedding pictures of several co-workers, and enjoyed making photos of the family. At one time he was also assigned to the Department's emergency management planning, again learning a lot about something new in a short period of time.
Jim did quite a bit of traveling out of town for the Florida Department of Agriculture in his position within the Marketing Division, including setting up displays in grocery stores and helping to organize the annual Florida Festival of Foods.
During the energy shortage in the 1970'2 Jim was assigned to researching the development of sources of methanol fuel from agricultural products. In a very brief time he became knowledgeable in that field, and made several trips in the United States and Latin American countries about making methanol from corn, cane and other plants. The family Ford pickup truck was retro-fitted to burn methanol, and had a large sign on the back of it to that effect.
Jim worked hard and on weekends he fished and hunted a lot. Most vacations would involve fishing.
In the 1960's he was involved in Dog Obedience Training, training the family German Shepherd "Shana", and at one time was president of the Tallahassee Dog Obedience Club.
Many times, when wild hog hunting, his hog dogs would be injured by the wild hogs. Jim did his own veterinary work on the dogs, including giving them shots, and sewing up the gashes received from sharp hog tusks.
Jim and Mickey's third daughter was born in Tallahassee in 1968.
Jim and a good friend started a construction company, VaLee Construction, taking great pride in the work they did.The family did tent camping for several years. Because putting up and taking down a tent became tiresome, Jim, with the help of his good friend, constructed an 18 foot travel trailer from the chassis up, working on it in the driveway. Jim and Mickey both designed the interior, utilizing every square inch of space, and Mickey sewed all of the curtains and cushion covers in a most professional manner. In appearance one would not know that it was not factory built. The family did of lot of camping in that trailer for many years, even making a trip to Yellowstone and other western sites, including New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and the Grand Canyon. All three daughters have memories of Daddy changing lots of tire blowouts, being stranded in the desert, and worrying when Jim had to hitchhike 50 miles to Flagstaff, Arizona to get help help for the broken down car.
Jim had a life-altering experience when, in the fall of 1974 he was preparing for a hunting trip. His Ruger .44 Magnum pistol slipped out of its holster, hit an open dresser drawer and went off, striking him in his left forearm with a jacketed hollowpoint bullet. The bullet blew away four inches of one bone and shattered the other bone. He was rushed to the hospital and received emergency treatment.
Jim's life was never the same again, yet he was able to overcome the adversity of a crippled arm and went on to lead as normal a life as possible. A neighbor theorized that the trajectory of the bullet might have landed it up on the rooftop. The neighbor climbed up on the roof and, sure enough, the bullet was still there.
He loved most of all in life hunting and fishing, and he and Mickey enjoyed gospel sings and square dancing. The day after his retirement, when Jim was 55 years old, he left for Mexico in the family pickup truck, with boat and trailer, accompanied by his German Shepherd Dog Jake. The truck had been outfitted as a makeshift camper, and he went off, with almost no knowledge of Mexico and no itinerary, to locate good fishing places in Mexico. In subsequent years he made several trips back to his favorite Mexican fishing spot on Lake Guerrero, with friends as well as his son-in-law. For a while early on in retirement he also worked at Wal-Mart as a greeter.
Jim and Mickey led a full retirement. They drove all the way to Alaska and back, fishing out there on the Kenai Peninsula. When they visited Israel they found that one trip wasn't enough so they went back again several years later.
It was fortunate for Jim that he retired early. By the time he was 65, he started having many health problems, including multiple back surgeries, diabetes and issues with severe pain. Despite these difficulties, he never gave up his desire to continue fishing or his hope of having another boat.
We, as his daughters have many,many good memories of our Dad. Even in his final years he still remembered how to speak Spanish as well as Tagalog, a Philippine dialect, even reading and translating a Spanish language birthday card he received just the year before his death. Few people know that prior to his gunshot accident Dad played the piano and the mandolin.
He loved covered dish dinners, and always brought a plate of desserts home. He really liked honey buns accompanied by chocolate milk, which became a traditional snack whenever we were on a road trip. When the oldest daughter was a toddler he would pick her up and carry her around upside down. We remember him training the dogs in the back yard in agility exercises. We remember seeing him gut and dress hogs and deer, fixing boat motors and taking us hunting and fishing with him. Dad was always proud of all of us, regardless of how horrible we were. We remember snuggling next to him on the couch, watching scary movies on television, and how he made peanut butter shakes. Dad was always supportive of Mom's activities and interests. She handled the money and he always trusted her handling of it. When the occasional disagreement occurred, there was no retribution, grudge holding or punitiveness. He worked hard to provide a good life for his family.
Daddy had more lives than ten cats put together. In his lifetime he suffered at least two gunshot wounds, numerous broken bones, multiple life threatening illnesses, multiple falls, one of which involved a circular saw. We used to refer to him as the "Energizer Bunny" because no matter what happened, he would just keep on going.When Dad was about six years old his parents were divorced and not much later Jay Lee died unexpectedly. Dad carried the pain of growing up fatherless with him his whole life. Despite his inner and outer pain, he did the very best he could to be a loving father and husband.
We will love him and miss him always.
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