[texbirds] Lee Lemmons remembered
- From: Jack Chiles <chilesjack@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: Texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 5 Jul 2013 11:53:42 -0500
Lee Lemmons remembered
I received word last month of Lee Lemmons recent passing at the age of 87. Lee
will be remember by many of my fellow Texbirders for his weekly posts on
Texbirds from 2002 to 2009 of the bird sighting on our weekly outing at
Hagerman NWR. I was privileged to bird with him on a weekly basis for more than
20 years.
About 3 years ago Lee moved to Moore, Ok. to live with his daughter. Lee's
birding there was pretty much limited to going out with his son on Sunday
mornings to a nearby lake. Shortly after moving there his son was killed in a
freeway accident. This limited his birding to occasional walks. He then spent
a lot of his time reading on a Kindle. He did not have access to the internet
there so I pretty much lost contact with him. I could not talk with him on the
phone because his hearing was too bad. He served his country as a signalman in
the Navy in World War II and contracted TB while in India. The drugs they gave
him for the TB is most likely what damaged his hearing. Near the end he became
completely deaf and had to communicate with his daughter via notes.
I visited recently with one of Lee's sisters, Imogene Smith, which related a
lot of interesting stories about Lee. One story was about when he was
performing his duties as a signalman in the North Atlantic. The seas were
raging and his shipmates tied him to a post on the deck of the ship to keep him
from being washed overboard so he could perform his signalman duties.
Lee was born in Denison, TX. and returned there at the age of 58, after a
career of teaching mentally challenged students in Oklahoma for 28 years. He
was interested in politics and was instrumental in bringing about improvements
in the teacher retirement system in Oklahoma. For these efforts he was
recognized by the then governor of Ok. George Nigh with a special Lee Lemmons
day in the state of Oklahoma.
Upon his return to Denison he became involved in birding and fishing which is
easy to understand because he had always possessed a love of nature. His
interest in Hagerman NWR was probably due to the fact that one of his sisters,
Nancy Poole, liked to bird with the Hagerman group.
Over the years Lee related his fond memories of birding trips with Tom Johnson,
Balmorhea State Park and Kelly Bryan, Ft. Davis and others including his
friend Jim Pierce and Robert George. He made at least 2 birding trips to Mexico
which he thoroughly enjoyed. He went on trips with his sister, Imogene, to Big
Bend via the river road to Terlingua, New Mexico's , Gila National Forest,
Rustler's Park AZ and Cave Creek AZ. to see the hummingbirds and orioles. He
especially enjoyed his trips to Balmorhea State Park, Bolivar Flats, Sea Rim
and McFadden.
Lee spent many hours on the Red River below the Denison Dam fishing and
watching the birds there. He was a very good fisherman and loved to eat fried
catfish. He also spent many hours birding with our good friend Karl Haller.
They would often go the refuge on Sunday mornings in addition to the other
regular trips to do the bird census.
One great memory I have of Lee was his love of cookies and my wife's chocolate
cakes. We had a tradition of breaking out the cookies when we entered the gate
at Goode. If the cookies weren't forthcoming Lee would always turn around with
his impish grin and enquire about the cookies.
At the time of the recent tornado in Moore, Ok. Lee was in the hospital there
and had heart surgery which led to complications with his breathing and later
to his death. He will be sorely missed. I am thankful that he got to spend many
years doing what he loved best.
Jack Chiles, Texas Master Naturalist
Edit your Freelists account settings for TEXBIRDS at
//www.freelists.org/list/texbirds
Reposting of traffic from TEXBIRDS is prohibited without seeking permission
from the List Owner
Other related posts:
