In Memoriam | Kate Lee 1942-2024

||| BY RICH LEE |||

Kate Lee (1942-2024) passed away peacefully on May 5 at Lighthouse Memory Care in Anacortes after a long and courageous battle with dementia. Kate was born in Willowbrook, California to Jayne and Dickson Williams and raised in Pendleton, Oregon.

She had a long and successful career as an elementary school teacher, beginning immediately after graduating from Eastern Oregon College in La Grande, Oregon. Her teaching assignments included classes in Lompoc and Ventura, California, Scappoose and Gresham, Oregon, and Juneau, Alaska. Kate also spent time as a legislative assistant in Salem, Oregon and as a researcher with the Alaska Public Interest Group in Anchorage, Alaska, before moving to Juneau, where she worked for many years as a classroom teacher at Juneau-Douglas Elementary School.

Kate retired from teaching in 1989 and settled on Orcas Island, where she remained for nearly 34 years. Kate had many devoted friends and was known for her warmth, humor, and generosity. She is survived by her husband Richard Lee, a brother Dickson Williams of Logan, Utah, a sister Marilyn Ritchey of Boise, Idaho, three stepchildren, three stepgrandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

At her request, no funeral services are being planned. She requested that any donations in her memory be made to the Orcas Island Community Foundation, as she enjoyed her time on Orcas immensely.