Margie Lee
Margie Lee, 85, of Midland went to be with her Lord and Savior on February 28, 2020. Margie was born June 29, 1934 in Carbon, Texas to J.C. and Myrle Stone Poe. She primarily grew up in Eastland, Texas where the Poe’s moved when Margie was six years old, graduating from Eastland High School in 1951. As a life-long learner and teacher she graduated Cisco Junior College in 1953, Hardin-Simmons University in 1954 and later the University of Texas Permian Basin with a Master of Science in Special Education in 1977. In 1988 and 1990 she earned certificates as an Academic Language Therapist and Master Instructor for Academic Language Therapists from Scottish-Rite Learning Center in order to provide effective instruction to adults and children with Dyslexia and those who teach them.
Faith, Margie’s belief in Jesus Christ as her Savior, was an important foundation for her throughout her life. She accepted Jesus as her personal Savior at the age of 12 and was active in church activities, whether teaching, leading, cooking or cleaning, as long as she was physically able. She attended Crestview Baptist, Wilshire Park Baptist, Fannin Terrace Baptist and First Baptist Churches during her 66 years in Midland. The last Bible study lesson she taught was in October of 2019.
In August of 1954 Margie married James Ralph Green and moved to Midland. Two children were born to this union, Vicki Jo Green Brockman and Timothy Scott Green. She was a proud parent who never missed any events or performances of her children and was involved in all their activities and parent organizations.
In September 1978 she married Donald Lee of Midland. Together they had a lot of fun and helped countless friends, students, educators and servicemembers in their 39 years of marriage. They discovered a love of travelling and travelled across the U.S. by RV at every opportunity, often mixing business and pleasure. Together they made and sold stained glass windows and pieces throughout the southwest for several years. Over time their interests moved away from stained glass and Margie expressed her creativity as an award-winning quilter.
Margie’s calling was as an educator-teaching students or teachers continuously from 1954 until 2012 at the age of 77 over 4 different “careers”--public-school teacher in Midland, founder and Director of Crestview Baptist Church Kindergarten and Pre-kindergarten, Academic Language Therapist and trainer, and reading software sales and training across West Texas. She began her career at Lamar Elementary and stepped away from public schools after nine years to found and lead the Crestview kindergarten for the next eight years. She returned to public schools when she became a single parent in 1972, teaching what was referred to as language/learning disabilities classes at 3 different elementary schools over the next 17 years. She retired from MISD to focus more on teaching teachers and adults as an academic language therapist for the next eight years. When she and Don had the opportunity to sell reading software and train teachers in its use, she first tried the programs with some of her students and then began her final “career” with the hope of impacting even more students by reaching more teachers. She and Don travelled three to four-thousand miles a month to West Texas, the Panhandle and Eastern New Mexico schools and tripled their sales and training team over that time. Finally, in 2011 at the age of 77, she and Don were forced to retire when Margie’s vison became so bad that she could no longer see the computer screens for the training.
In 2012 Margie and Don moved to Manor Park Retirement Community and were active there throughout the remainder of their lives.
Her husband, Donald, preceded her in death on August 22, 2017. She is survived by daughter, Vicki and her husband Brian of Cleburne, Texas; son, Tim and wife Susan of College Station, Texas; grandchildren Kaitlin Brockman Belcher and husband Justin of Greenwood, Kristen Brockman of Hilton Head, South Carolina, Andrew Green of Winter Park, Florida, Rachel Green of Pasadena, California; great-granddaughters Rowen Jo Belcher and baby girl Belcher arriving soon! She is also survived by step-son Craig Lee and wife Melinda of LaPorte, Texas, step-daughter Carla Lee McDaniel and husband Scott, of Midland, step-grandchildren Jeff McDaniel, Paige Bartlett, Tatum MacNaughton, Jake Lee and four step-great grandchildren. She is also survived by her sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Neva Jo and Bill Brown of San Angelo.
Memorial services were held on Saturday, March 7, 2020 at 11:00AM at Parks-Faudree Family Chapel at Manor Park.
In lieu of flowers, memorials can be sent to either the Scottish Rite Learning Center of West Texas on-line at srlcwt.org (by mail at 1101 70th Street, Lubbock, TX 79412) or Village at Manor Park at 2208 N. Loop 250 West, Midland, TX, 79707.
Arragements are under the direction of Nalley-Pickle & Welch Funeral Home & Crematory of Midland. Online condolences can be made at www.npwelch.com.