Ruth E. Lee

Ruth E. Lee

January 21, 1932 – December 29, 2022

Ruth E. (Headley) Lee died unexpectedly on December 29, 2022, at home in Queens, NY. She was born on January 21, 1932, in New York City, the second child of Winston O. Headley and Clara (Smith) Headley.

Ruth graduated from Girls High School in Brooklyn, NY. After High School, she attended Brooklyn College to study Anthropology. During her early professional experience, Ruth proudly spoke of her work as a Telephone Operator for “Ma Bell”. Ruth, then a quiet and shy young woman declined a promotion to be a supervisor. In later years, Ruth’s professional experiences included her work in retail, childcare, and for the New York City Department of Education.

In 1956, Ruth married the love of her life Reginald “Pete” Lee. In 1958, the couple celebrated the birth of their first child, Eric Peter Lee and in 1960 they celebrated the birth of their second child, Monica Susan Lee. Pete and Ruth were also foster parents to a newborn baby Wesley Robert Stewart “Lee”.

In 1979, Ruth graduated from Queens Borough Community College, attending the school at the same time as her son Eric. Ruth graduated with a degree in Nursing. As a Registered Nurse, she worked with skill and compassion at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway, NY. During her tenure, this time, she accepted a promotion as a proctor teaching new nurses. Ruth loved her job and the friends she was blessed to meet at St. John’s.

Ruth was a world traveler—visiting Israel, Morocco, Korea, Spain, Nova Scotia, Venezuela, most of the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and the West Indies.

Ruth loved animals great and small. During her lifetime she had many pets—among them cats, dogs, and several hamsters. One Christmas season, her daughter asked her what she wanted for Christmas and Ruth replied, “a dinosaur!” She was gifted with the closet thing an Iguana. Another time her grandchildren gave her the “fighting hamsters, who spent their days trying to escape, she aptly named them Pablo Escobar and El Chapo.

Ruth was a devoted and diehard New York Yankee fan and she was affectionately called the Yankee Princess by her co-workers. Ruth and Eric discussed the team, its players, wins, and losses and they watched the games together (remotely via telephone) every season.

Ruth had an incredible sense of humor which she genetically passed on to her children.

Ruth is preceded in death by her mother Clara Headley, her father Winston O. Headley, and her beloved husband Reginald “Pete” Lee. She is survived by her sister Joan Thompson, her loving son and daughter Eric Peter Lee and Monica Susan Lee, her grandchildren Victoria Elizabeth Lee and Angela Christine Lee, nieces, nephews, cousins, and other dear family and friends while not named are loved, and appreciated by Eric and Monica and Ruth in heaven.

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