Beverly Jean Lee

Beverly Jean Lee passed away on July 8, 2026 at the Mt. Baker Care Center in Bellingham, WA. She was 92. Bev was born in Bellingham October 8, 1933 to Russell Glenn Barr and Norma Warm Barr. She graduated from Bellingham High School in 1951, and attended Western Washington College of Education where she studied business. In fall 1951 she was named Freshman Homecoming Princess, and as luck would have it, her escort to the Homecoming Dance was football lineman Arthur Lee. It was love at first sight. The two were married in 1952 in Mt. Vernon. While Art finished his degree in Social Science, Bev helped support the family with a job at the Bellingham National Bank where as she proudly told it, she became the first snorkel teller. Art received his commission as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps in 1955, and for the next twenty years Bev and Art lived on Marine bases all over the country, from Twenty-nine Palms, CA, to Goose Creek, SC and a dozen places in between; when Art was assigned to Vietnam, Bev moved the family home to Marysville. As a child in Bellingham Bev learned to play the piano well, and for the rest of her life she played for her own enjoyment, for the family, and at a variety of events. For many years she worked as a receptionist at the Orchard Park care center, and entertained the residents playing old favorites and leading singalongs. Her many friends remember her unfailing good humor, her positive outlook on life, and her friendliness. No one who ever met Bev was a stranger for long. She was totally engaged in life and loved adventures. She and Art drove back and forth across country several times with family, and after Art’s retirement from the Marine Corps in 1977, snow-birded between Washington and Arizona annually. Over the last several years, once or twice a week, they would pile into the car and drive to someplace nearby for lunch, for a treat, or just to “see something.” Art was admitted to the Washington State Veterans’ Home in Port Orchard in 2024. Driven by friends and family, Bev visited him weekly for the next fourteen months. When she lost Art in December of 2025 she lost the great love of her life. They had been married for seventy-three years and she often said they were in love every one of them. She found some solace in driving as she and Art had done, to Burlington weekly to play cards with her sister-in-law, to Starbuck’s to have coffee with two long-time friends, to the Bellingham Senior Center where she was the only ninety+ year-old woman in the fitness room, pedaling away on the NuStep. While she drove, she listened a collection of her and Art’s favorite music, and always ended singing along to Crystal Gale’s “When I Dream.” She remained close with both of her sisters-in-law, her sister, and her immediate family. Bev leaves a sister Barbie, daughters Linda and Debra, four grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren, and six great-great-grandchildren. A memorial service will be announced by the family in the coming months. Tributes should be given in her name to the Bellingham Senior Center.

Beverly Jean Lee

October 8, 1933 - July 8, 2026