Betty S. Lee

Betty Sparks Lee departed this life on Saturday, June 18, 2016. The relatives and friends of Betty Sparks Lee are invited attend her Memorial Service at 2:00 PM Tuesday, June 21, 2016, at First (Scots) Presbyterian Church, 53 Meeting Street, Charleston. Interment will be private. The family will receive friends between 5:00 and 7:00 PM Monday at the James A. McAlister Funeral Home, 1620 Savannah Hwy., Charleston. She was born January 16, 1931 in Greenville, SC, one of three daughters of the late Minnie Thomas Sparks and Augustus Eugene Sparks of Greenville. Betty graduated from Greenville High School and was the first female to graduate from Furman University with an Economics degree. She fell in love with and married the late William H. Lee, Jr. MD, of Charleston SC in 1952. Exceptionally bright, Betty graduated years early. While her husband finished medical school, she taught at Moultrie High School where she was teased because she was the same age as some of her students. She was a wonderful mother of their three children, of whom she was most proud. Tough, smart, and beautiful, she enthusiastically insured that her teen-aged children would thrive after the sudden death of her husband in 1977. Betty was a positive force in everyone's lives and was quite active in the community. She was a member of First (Scots) Presbyterian Church, the Gibbes Museum Women's Council, the Garden Club of Charleston, the Charleston Symphony Orchestra Women's League, the MUSC Women's Club, and the Charleston County Medical Society Auxiliary. She loved to sail, play tennis, travel, and care or her children and grandchildren. Later in life she loved to play Mahjong with friends. She will be remembered for her independent spirit, her marvelous sense of humor, her age-defying lively personality, and her beautiful smile. She will be greatly missed by her surviving three children: her daughter, Elizabeth Lee Robinson; her son, William Hall Lee III, MD and his wife, Kimberly Miller Lee; her daughter, Sylvia Lee Rivers and her husband, G.L. Buist Rivers III. She is also survived by her six grandchildren: Sylvia Lee Clarkson, MD and her husband, Paul Joseph Clarkson, Christopher Lee Robinson and his wife, Brianna Novak Robinson, William H. Lee IV, Russell McConnell Robinson, Jr., G.L. Buist Rivers IV, Eliza Lee Rivers and one great grandson, Baylor Wade Walker, all of Charleston. She is also survived by her sister, Sandra Sparks Wills and her husband, Alfred H. Wills of Greenville, SC. She was predeceased by her sister, Sylvia Sparks, of Greenville. In lieu of flowers, expressions of sympathy may be sent to the William Hall Lee, Jr. MD Memorial Fund, MUSC Foundation, 18 Bee St, MSC 450, Charleston SC 29425.