Walter Fred Lee

Walter Lee is a family hero.

In the last post, Walter began his life as a single father. His wife had died suddenly, his business had failed in the middle of the Great Depression, and he was forced to move his four children from their three story home to a small, bungalow style home.

Walter then suffered a heart attack. As he recovered at home, friends came to visit. My mother wrote of the day she fearfully sat on her bed listening as the friends tried to convince Walter to place his children in an orphanage. It was not uncommon during the Great Depression for parents to make that decision. Walter refused, though he made arrangements with close friends to take the children if he died.

Walter was born in 1884 in Adams, New York to Ada and Fred Lee. His only siblings, Bessie and Thomas, died in early childhood.

Walter was a student at Albion College in Michigan when he got a difficult case of pneumonia. The illness forced him to go home to New York where it took him a full year to recover. Pneumonia was a dangerous disease before the discovery of penicillan. Walter tried to return to school, but felt he couldn't keep up and dropped out. Before he was ill, Walter played college rugby. The photos below are his teams.

Walter is in the front, holding the ball.

Walter is #11

In 1910 , Walter, his parents, and his grandmother, Ellen, lived in Huntington Park, California. After Fred and Ada died, Walter bought a home in Eagle Rock, and lived there with his grandmother, Ellen. Soon Walter married Thirza and they began their family. The photo below of Walter was taken about 1925.

Walter spent the years after Thirza’s death parenting his sons Arthur, Lloyd and Albion and his daughter, Margaret. Good health habits were important in the home. The children started each day with full glasses of warm water. A punching bag hung in the doorway to the kitchen. He encouraged his children to hit the bag as they walked into the kitchen. Anyone who lost his temper was required to hit the bag. All of the children graduated from high school. He sent three sons to war in the 1940s. His daughter, Margaret, wrote lovingly of him, describing him as being patient and caring. His rambunctious sons remember him differently.

Walter is a man who met his responsibilities. He cared for his elderly grandmother, Ellen, until her death. He took care of his children as best he could. His life was at times very difficult, even tragic. But he never quit.

The two pictures below, taken on the same day in 1944, show me that Walter was a wonderful success! In the left photo is his son Albion, his son, Lloyd, in the Navy uniform, and Margaret. I love the photo on the right. Walter and Margaret look at each other laughing as Albion leans against Margaret. The happiness in the family is apparent.

After his children were grown, Walter married a woman named “Pal,” shown in the photo below. They lived happily together for several years. Walter’s heart finally failed in 1954 and he died at age seventy.