A Tribute to the Life of Mrs. Hester A. Lee
By Walter Raleigh Lovell
Mrs. Hester A. Lee was, in many respects, a most unusual character. Born of humble parents at Plymouth, N.C., in the years of civil strife between the states, she often spoke, with no words of bitterness of the early years of her life, when, because of the loss of her father, she shouldered many burdens incident to the providing for others of the household. How well she learned the valuable lesson of thrift, industry and economy is best evidenced in the fact that before she died, she possessed along with her splendid husband, Prof. W.S. Lee, very valuable real estate in her adopted city, Asheville.
She had remarkable business acumen, and her reputation for fair and honest dealings was known alike by white and colored people. While her private affairs might well have demanded a full share of her time, she never allowed these to interfere with her zeal for social service. Nearly 40 years were given to the work of teaching, principally in Buncombe County and Asheville. Her work in this field has been signally honored by the Board of Commissioners of the city of Asheville, by naming the new $100,000 school buildings Stevens Lee in honor of Prof. Stevens, the first principal, and Mrs. Lee, who taught many years at Catholic Hill, which the new school replaces.
Aside form the long period of service as a teacher, Mrs. Lee was a faithful Sunday School teacher, trustee and influential worker in the Y.W.C.A., Vice President of the Parent-Teacher Association, and a worker in many other civic organizations.
It is safe to say she had as large a host of friends as any one the writer ever knew. She was a graduate of Livingstone College, a member of Hopkins Chapel A.M.E. Zion Church and was known throughout the borders of the connection. But few of the bishops, general officers and ministers there were who had not at some time known Mrs. Lee. Her door was always open for their entertainment and here they found a hearty welcome and words of encouragement.
She was vitally interested in the success of the church and on several occasions attended the General Conference. Her life and work will be long remembered as making a very unusual achievement in the life of one whose wealth of ability was devoted to the establishment of a high type of Christian character and service.
Dr. W.H. Goler, who taught her while a student at Livingstone College, gives the following estimate of her character:
“There is a silent power in the good life which exerts an influence not only upon its immediate surroundings or the age of its activities, but on the ages following. We have lived our life in vain if at its close we have done no substantial good; contributed nothing to the favorable memory of men; if we have bound up no broken heart; if we have dried no weeping eye; if no word from our lips has lifted a drooping head or inspired hope; if our hands have never ministered to suffering or want or plucked form some heart a rooted sorrow.
“The life just closed was full of deeds of mercy, sympathy and love; and so we have come today to pay our last tribute of respect to her whose removal from us has caused gloom and sadness, not only here in tis community where she is so well and favorably known, where she so well lived and labored, but in the wider area of our church representatives upon whom she impressed her tender, kind and sympathetic personality.
“A Christian of the highest type, she was devoted to this church and made no little sacrifices for its success, laboring in the Sabbath School and with its auxiliaries to bring about a higher state of living, ever impressing upon the youth the superiority of goodness to greatness and usefulness to popularity.
“Such is the estimate placed upon her high character as a citizen her moral worth in the community, her influence, her ability and influence as a teacher, that the school commissioners of this city erected and dedicated to her name and memory one of the largest and most popular public school buildings in the State; and though she was not in active service at the time of her death, yet so high is the esteem in which she is held that a committee of the school board is called to draft resolutions of condolence on her passing. What an example to this community of what a high life may call forth! There is no co9lor line in this, but the simple, unstinted recognition of worth born of unsullied character and carried out in holy living.
“This is the ripe product of the Church. The secret of it all is that she early gave herself to Christ and for nearly 40 years was kept by power divine. ‘Mark the perfect man and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace. Lord who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.’ “These conditions are met in Sister Lee. She lived the life.
“She improved what she received,
Thy grace already given;
And since with God on earth she lived,
She lives with God in heaven.”
From the front page of The Star of Zion, Charlotte, N.C., Thursday, Nov. 16, 1922
No comments:
Post a Comment