John Lee 1959
John David Lee was born February 26, 1941, to Ethner and Irene Lee. He died on November 2, 1999.
John had four sisters – Sandra, Karen, Judy and Janice. He had one brother, Robert.
The following information was provided by John’s brother Bob Lee who was married to Vesta Patterson Lee in our class.
John had a different life than his five siblings. He was diagnosed with polio when he was 3 or 4 and went through hell getting past that. He then had multiple surgeries to straighten one of his legs (I don’t remember which one). I knew some of John’s friends, but I was in the Navy and wasn’t around John much during his junior high and high school years.John loved animals and brought home all kinds including a skunk (unscented), numerous exotic birds, a raccoon and others that I can’t recall.John did join the Navy in, I think, 1958 but was released with a medical discharge when his shorter leg was discovered and the polio was revealed. He went to California in 1960 with Dad and me. He went to work for Lockheed at the same time as Dad and I did.He was a lead man in manufacturing at Lockheed. Some of the workers were deaf and signed to communicate. John learned how to sign and was very good at it.John married three times and adopted his first wife’s two sons, Tim and Steve. Steve hosted and organized the memorial gathering for the family in California when John died.
