Joan Hughes Lee

Joan Lee, 91, passed peacefully with family by her side at Christopher House in Austin on December 18, 2021. Joan had recently moved to Austin after living in Arlington, Texas for most of her life.

Joan was the youngest of five children born to Olivia and George Wesley Hughes in Commerce, Texas. She later moved to Abilene where she graduated from Abilene High School and attended McMurry University.

She left Texas for the first time in 1951 when she drove cross country with her mother and one of her sisters to San Diego where she married Garland Lee who was serving in the US Navy. He shipped out for a 14 month deployment two weeks following their wedding. Joan shared an apartment with another Navy wife across from Balboa Park and enjoyed life in San Diego. They returned to Arlington, Texas upon leaving the Navy in 1953 and raised their three children there.

Joan started working as a secretary while she was still in high school. She worked for several different companies and owned her own secretarial service for a number of years. She worked for American Airlines and SABRE for many years finally retiring in her 70s.

A life-long Methodist, she was one of the founding members of Epworth United Methodist Church in Arlington where she served for many years as the church treasurer.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Garland H. Lee, Jr, her parents and all but one of her siblings. She is survived by daughter Janica Smith and her husband Jim (Austin, TX), daughter Jeanean Lasater and her husband Kim (Isla Mujeres, Mexico), son Wes Lee and his wife Marilyn (Arlington, TX), granddaughter Emily Hafner, her husband Marcus, and their children Lauren, Marc, and Kate (Austin, TX), grandson Steven Smith, his wife Ashley, and their children, Austin and Andy Lee (Pensacola, FL), grandson Will Herod and his wife Alysse (McKinney, TX), granddaughter Samantha Tyler, her husband Jamie, and their children Jubilee and Guthrie (Austin, TX), her sister Bobbie Radtke (Houston, TX) and many nieces and nephews.

Graveside services will be held on January 3, 2022 at 11:00am at the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery, 2000 Mountain Creek Parkway, Dallas, Texas. Arrangements are being handled through Wade Funeral Home, Arlington, Texas.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts can be made to Epworth Methodist Church or Hospice Austin/Christopher House.