It was late summer in Sparta, Tennessee, when on September 10, 1949, a little boy was born to Albert Lee, a graduate of the University of Tennessee and a pilot, and May Louise Kelly Lee, a trained teacher from upstate New York. They named him David Albert Lee.

Just months later in December, when David was just an infant, his Daddy had an interview for a teaching job. Outside in the car with his mama and older sister Linda, they waited. When his Daddy returned, he told his Mama: "They want to hire us both." That journey took the young family through the winding mountain roads into what David would describe years later as paradise on Earth. Albert and Louise Lee were hired to run the Snowbird Day School on the edge of Snowbird Creek in western North Carolina. His Daddy would be the principal and teach the older children while his Mama would teach the younger ones. The school was attended by children of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian community and was part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs school program. In a little white house near the school is where David spent his childhood. Swimming in the creek and romping through the forests. 

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For 15 years, Albert and Louise Lee led the Snowbird Day School and raised their family in the heart of Cherokee country. During this time, three more daughters would be born: Laura, Lois and Lucy. Being the only boy in the family certainly shaped the man David would later become. David excelled at track and football at Robbinsville High School. At halftime, David would come back to the field in his football uniform to join the marching band playing trumpet. He became a star buckdancer and loved the backwoods gospel and bluegrass mountain music.

The Brown vs. Board of Education ruling in 1954 made school segregation unconstitutional. The ruling set the course for the slow integration of the Cherokee students from the Snowbird Day School to the Robbinsville school district. The Snowbird Day School was closed in 1965. Albert and Louise Lee were beloved by all their students over the years. Decades later in 2022, the couple was posthumously honored for their role in preserving the native language, as they encouraged their students to speak Cherokee, which was directly against the BIA instructions. They were given honorary membership in the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian tribe.

Can you imagine moving across the country ahead of your senior year in high school? Albert and Louise had secured new employment at Fort Wingate near Gallup, New Mexico, moving the family 2,000 miles away from the lush Appalachian mountains to the high desert. It was a dramatic change. David continued to play football and run track and play trumpet. He graduated high school at age 16.

In these southwestern lands, the sky was the limit. David was awarded a track scholarship at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, making his parents so proud. As a freshman, he arrived clean cut and ready to run. But over the next few months, David discovered the folk music scene at UT. At the end of the school year, when his dad went to pick him up at the train station, his hair was long and disheveled — and he had a guitar on his shoulder.

As a sophomore, David transferred to Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, near to where his parents were now working. It was here beneath the San Francisco Peaks that he found his forever home. Along with his sisters, he attended NAU earning a bachelors and masters degree in psychology. He worked in the field as a psychometrist and then as a guidance counselor. It was during this time, when he met the most beautiful woman in the world, Rayma Sharber. 

As a young man in the early 1970s, David developed what would become his lifelong passions of photography and songwriting. Rayma was of course one of his favorite subjects — although she did at times grab the camera and take his photo.

Leaving psychology behind, David self-taught himself auto mechanics and took a job managing Interstate Texaco on South Milton Drive. Rayma’s father ran a local gasoline distribution business, and later was given the opportunity to lease the gas station and start his own independent business. Through NAU and the local music scene, David would meet people who would become lifelong friends, including Norm Lewis, Dan Cady, Terry Kriedler, Jimmy Dublois and many others.

The couple bought their first house at the base of Mount Elden in 1976. It was this home that welcomed their four children: Jessica May, Dylan Joseph, William John and David Albert Jr. David and Rayma loved to get their children out into nature and on adventures. Boating on the Verde River. Long bicycle rides on backcountry dirt roads. Fishing at Lake Mary. Hiking to Havasupai Falls. Sunsets on the peaks. Buffalo Park. The red rocks of Sedona. Exploring Lake Powell. And they even led them all the way up the side of Mt. Elden without a trail. Days were filled with homework, and lots of sports: softball, soccer, football and basketball. David loved his Tuesday night Tai chi class. 

In 1990, the couple bought a new house in West Flagstaff with a view of the peaks, where he would live for the rest of his life. His annual birthday tradition was a hike to the top of Humphrey’s Peak, in which all the children would join him one at a time, along with his sister Laura, over the years. He felt power climbing to the highest place in the land.

David always believed that music was the stairway to heaven and is the key link to personal spiritual growth. David could be heard practicing his guitar early in the morning or late at night — and even behind the counter at the gas station. He would occasionally perform out in the community, at open mic nights and local folk festivals. With more than 150 published songs, David admits to writing music about nearly everything. 

It felt like a twisted plot in a nightmare that David would be diagnosed with a chronic lung illness that would ultimately make it difficult to sing and hike. But every day, even as his illness would slowly take away his breath, his mind was sharp and he remained artistically creative. Dates on his camera revealed that he continued to take solo trips around the Flagstaff area, packing up his oxygen tank along for the ride. He followed the fall colors across the peaks and searched for his ghost at Wukoki. He was actively taking care of his wife and family until the moment he took his last breath. David died on November 5 at his home in the arms of his wife and son, David. He left this world in his work clothes with his boots on and his finger picks on the table.

David Albert Lee is survived by his beloved wife Rayma, his children Jessica, Dylan, Willy and David. He has seven grandchildren: Genesis, Jaxon, Mason, Zooey, Cora, Peyton and Josie. 

David breathed in beauty, and breathed out love. He will be greatly missed.

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Written By Jessica Lee Martin

November 14, 2024

Photograph on the top of the page is by John Running