Henry J. Lee Jr.

April 24, 1942 - April 21, 1987

My father grew up in Charleston, SC- the son of Henry J. Lee Sr. and Louise H. Lee. He went to St. Andrews High School, and upon graduating attended the University of South Carolina in Columbia where he met my mother, Donna Lee Cox. Shortly after, he joined the Marines and served in the Vietnam War before returning home to work with my grandfather in the family business, Henry J. Lee Distributors, a beer distributorship in Charleston.

By all accounts, my father was an amazing person. Of course, as a kid he was just an amazing Dad, but since his death in 1987 I have continued (although with dificulty) to come to know him as a person through the many relatives in my family and friends in our community that loved him and were fortunate enough to have had him in their lives.

He was a lover of music and my first guitar teacher- and a good and patient one- but eventually, the generation gap became an issue :-) He loved the EARLY Beatles (his collection ended abruptly at Sgt. Pepper's), The Lettermen, Bill Haley and the Comets, Buddy Holly, etc... I was into Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, REM, U2, and so on. Nevertheless, we played together quite frequently- Louie Louie when I was just beginning, and later his favorite tune, Honky Tonk by The Ventures, to which he taught me the solo note for note. I like to think that by devoting my life to music, I am doing something that he would be proud of, and that I am taking a path in life he might have liked to take had circumstances been different.