Dorothy J. Lee

Dorothy (Lerum) Lee, age 93, passed on Saturday, November 18, 2023.  Dorothy spent her first 28 years in the Canadian border town of Sweet Grass, Montana. She graduated with her class of four in May 1948.  Dorothy married Loyd Ira Lee in October 1948. She was a secretary at the immigration Port of Entry at Sweet Grass until 1951.

Her children Tom (deceased) and Dona were born in Shelby, MT, 36 miles south of the border.  They moved when the Texaco Oil Refinery relocated to Anacortes, WA, in 1958. She graduated from Skagit Valley Community College in Mount Vernon, WA in 1962.  The family moved to Tacoma so that she could earn her teaching degree at Pacific Lutheran University. Dorothy taught for six years in Tacoma while her husband worked at St. Regis Paper Co.

They moved again to Spokane for two years where Tom graduated from high school. Dorothy taught grades four through seven, with 28 students, at a country school a mile and a half from the Spokane city limits. They moved to Hermiston, Oregon in 1970. Loyd worked at Boise Cascade Paper Co. in Wallula, WA, and Dorothy taught at West Park Elementary School for nine years, then at Thompson Hall for one year. She taught for nine years at Highland Hills Elementary, retiring in 1988 because of hearing loss.

Dorothy was baptized by a Lutheran minister who preached once a month at the Methodist Church in Sweet Grass. She was confirmed in Sunburst, MT in 1943 (where her children were baptized in 1952 and 1955). She was active at Trinity Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Hermiston with quilting, was a bible study leader and taught vacation bible school. At Grace and Mercy Lutheran Church in Hermiston she was active with quilting and card ministry.

She was a product of the depression and WWII, learning to recycle everything or do without. In that way, she was able to leave legacies at Thrivent, ELCA Disaster Relief, Guide Dog for the Blind, OPB and the Red Cross.

No public services will be held.

The family of Dorothy Lerum Lee is being cared for by Farris Funeral Service & Crematory, 427 East Main Street, Abingdon, VA 24210, (276) 623-2700.