Mabel A (Barbee) Lee (1884 - 1979)

Born 11 Apr 1884 in Silver Reef, Utah

Ancestors

Died 12 Dec 1979 at age 95 in Santa Barbara, California

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Biography

Mabel (Barbee) Lee is Notable.

In October 1892 at the age of eight, Mabel arrived in Cripple Creek with her mother after a train trip from Kansas City to Florence, Colorado and from Florence to Cripple Creek by stage coach. They spent their first night at the elegant Continental Hotel on Meyers Avenue, which was later torn down in 1919. The Barbee family then lived in a tent for about a year, during which time her brother William was born, until her father, John Barbee bought a four-room house on West Golden Avenue. The home was destroyed in the second Cripple Creek fire on April 29, 1896. The Barbee family then moved into a fire victim relief tent sent by W. S. Stratton until John Barbee was able to rebuild their home on West Golden Avenue.

Mabel Barbee Lee grew up in Cripple Creek during the gold rush boom town days of the 1890's-1900's, went to Colorado College and was Lowell Thomas' tenth grade history and spanish teacher during the 1906-07 school year. In 1908 at the age of twenty-four, she married Howard "Howe" S. Lee and had a daughter named Barbara. In 1918 after Howe's death from influenza, Mabel resumed her career in teaching. She began writing after retirement and had the first of her five books published at the age of 74. Her books include Cripple Creek Days and Back in Cripple Creek.

Mabel Barbee Lee's correspondence with Lowell Thomas is housed at the Tutt Library at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Mabel Barbee Lee died at the age of 94 on December 12, 1979 in a nursing home in Santa Barbara, California and was buried beside her parents in the Mount Pisgah Cemetery in Cripple Creek, Colorado.

Sources

• Mabel Barbee Lee Biography
• Cripple Creek Days - By Mabel Barbee Lee
• Find A Grave Obituary
• Mabel Barbee Lee at Wikipedia
• 1966 video, Voices of the Past