Ms. Cody's great uncle was Buffalo Bill Cody. Ms. Cody married Forrest Lees Sr. who was a Navy Pilot stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7th 1941. Officer Lees was the first U.S. Navy pilot in the air on that fateful day. Ms. Cody, who married Forrest and was now Mrs. Lees, was hanging laundry in her back yard which was on a bluff; a bluff that overlooked the Pacific Ocean. With her in the yard that morning were two boys (ages 7 and 6). The 7 year old (Forrest Lees Jr.) was climbing a tree. He and his mother watched, as a large number of strange planes flew over their house headed for the Navy base.
The boys dad who was also Mrs. Lees husband also saw that formation of planes as they flew toward Pearl Harbor. He was in a plane, above the formation, on a training flight with a new pilot. He took a pipe out of his mouth, tapped the pilot next to him on the shoulder, and said, "those are not American planes, they are Japanese".
Over the next several hours, America was attacked and the Pacific fleet devastated by the Japanese Navy. Officer Lees survived. He returned home and gave his wife a revolver with three bullets. He told her, "don't let them take you alive". One bullet each for her and the two boys. Mrs. Lees and the boys were later evacuated to a commercial freighter which took them to San Francisco, they spent the entire trip on the deck of the ship. Mrs. Lees and the boys left their house in Hawaii with nothing but the clothes on their back. They arrived in California with nothing more than a dime which Mrs. Lees used to call relatives to come and get them.
Over the next four years, Officer and Mrs. Lees did not see one another; Officer Lees was busy serving his country in defense against the enemy. The two of them were reunited and went on to have three more boys.
Mrs. Lees first son, Forrest Lees Jr., married Sally May North. Forrest Jr. was the 7 year old boy in the tree, on Hawaii, who watched the Japanese Navy on it's way to attack Pearl Harbor. Forrest Jr. went on to become a Navy Pilot who won the Distinguished Flying Cross in Vietnam. Forrest Jr. and Sally May had five children, four girls and one boy. The third child born was a girl named Kathryn Anne Lees. On January 11th 1992 Kathryn married me, but that is a story for another day.
This post is in remembrance of Kathryn's grandmother, Leabelle Lees. I had the privilege of meeting "Grammy Lees" on several occasions. I remember her as a beautiful woman from another time and place. A time and place of honesty, substance, beauty, integrity, and genuineness that is rare today. She lived, on this planet for 98 years...WOW...that is a long time. She and Forrest Sr. had five boys who went on to become successful men.
These are my memories of what Kathryn has shared with me and what I have observed concerning Grammy Lees. What a life.
Grammy Lees died on December 13th, 2009.
I know that Kathryn is a relative of Buffalo Bill Cody because she shoots better that I do.
Oh, by the way, Grammy was a believer. I will see her again. I LOVE IT...
