Carolyn Jean Lee

Carolyn Jean Lee

Carolyn Lee, beloved wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, organizer-in-chief, professional interrogator, and the glue that held the family together, passed away peacefully on May 18, 2026, at the age of 87.

Carolyn was born on June 24, 1938, in Spokane. She graduated from Lewis and Clark High School in 1955 and Washington State University in 1960 with a BA in Education. On August 30, 1958, she married the love of her life, Donald Lee. That marriage lasted 67 years until Don’s departure from this world in March.

Her homemaking skills kept the family on track through moves from Corvallis, Oregon, to Pullman, Washington, and later to Port Townsend following Don’s retirement, before returning to the Palouse in 2022. In her younger years, Carolyn was in a bowling league and volunteered with the Pullman Hospital Auxiliary. A highlight of her life was travelling with Don to Lesotho, Africa for two years for his work with the USAID program.

Through it all, Carolyn was a professional homemaker, a full-time job with no vacation days, no retirement plan, and no clocking out. She ruled the home with precision and was best known for her trademark endless stream of questions. Some questions were practical: “Did you turn the TV off?” “Who left the lights on?” Others had no known answer: “Where did all the Tupperware lids go?” and “Why would anyone put this on the counter?”

Carolyn’s family also knew there was one word capable of instantly freezing them in their tracks: “Question!” That single word meant there was no escape. What followed was a detailed barrage of inquiries no person could successfully dodge, evade, or weasel out of. By the end of the interrogation, Carolyn typically had a complete minute-by-minute accounting of where they were going, who they would be with, what they planned to do, when they would return, what route they were taking, and probably the blood type of everyone involved. As the years passed, “Question!” became a legendary family phrase that produced equal parts laughter, eye-rolling, and affectionate ribbing directed back at her. Carolyn took it exactly as she took most things in life — with a smile, good humor, and absolutely no intention whatsoever of asking fewer questions.

Carolyn also possessed a truly legendary organizational system worthy of a museum archivist that no one else fully understood, yet everyone depended on daily. She knew exactly where everything in the house was stored — from the rubber band stash to the tiny metal clip holding an Ace bandage together somewhere deep in a drawer nobody else dared to open. If anyone so much as opened a kitchen cupboard, she immediately asked, “What are you looking for?” before they even knew themselves.

After 67 years together, Carolyn apparently decided that letting Don run around heaven unsupervised for more than seven weeks was simply not an option. Those closest to her knew that when Don passed away recently, the biggest part of Carolyn’s heart went with him. Their love story was the kind built over a lifetime — side by side through joys, hardships, family adventures, and ordinary days that mostly consisted of asking each other questions and getting “what?” as an answer.

Carolyn is survived by her children, Patty Lee, Jerry Lee and wife Carrie (Guido), and Debbie Lee; her grandchildren, Alicia Lee and Lindsey Lee; great-grandchildren Isabelle and Adrienne. She was also a beloved surrogate grandmother to Skye Merickel (Gardner) and her children, Maeve and Lance.

A joint Celebration of Life for Carolyn and Don will be held at the family ranch in Goldendale on August 30, 2026 — their wedding anniversary — exactly where they would have wanted: together, surrounded by family, stories, laughter, and shade - because mom hated temperatures over 71 degrees.

She will be deeply missed, fondly remembered, and somewhere in heaven, Carolyn already knows where everything is stored, who moved it, why they moved it, and when they plan to put it back.

Link to Don's obituary here: Don's Obituary