Katie Lee鈥攁 noted聽activist, environmentalist,聽folksinger, river runner, and writer鈥攈as died at her home in Jerome, Arizona. She was 98.
Lee was born in 1919 in Tucson, Arizona. As a child, she had a natural talent for playing the piano and it seemed as if she might spend much of her life as a performer. Her career began as an actress on stage and screen in the 鈥40s. By the 1950s, she鈥檇 turned to songwriting and folksinging, which took her on the road and to every state across the country for a decade. Legendary singer聽Burl Ives is , 鈥淭he best cowboy singer I know is a girl, Katie Lee.鈥
But in 1953, her life changed course. She went home to perform,聽and at the afterparty at her family鈥檚 ranch she watched a 16mm film of her high school friend, Tad Nichols, steering his first power boat run down the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. 鈥淗oly mother of Mary鈥擨鈥檝e got to get there. But, even though I鈥檇 made great strides in Hollywood, I didn鈥檛 have any money,鈥 Lee told me . Nichols called her late that night with a solution. He said, 鈥淏ring your food and guitar鈥攍et鈥檚 make it work.鈥 Lee made her first trip down the Grand Canyon, and would go on to become perhaps the best-known, and certainly among the most loved, of the canyon鈥檚 many characters.
Soon she was spending whole months on the Grand Canyon and San Juan Rivers. She became just the third woman to run all of the Grand Canyon鈥檚 rapids. Once she paddled Glen Canyon, she became enthralled. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 when the 186 miles of pure Eden that is Glen Canyon captivated me and made me its slave,鈥 Lee said.
Before the Glen Canyon Dam was built in 1956, Lee spoke with a fiery鈥攁nd often foul-mouthed鈥攑assion against the dam鈥檚 construction and her plight did not extinguish for the the following six decades. 鈥淭here are good dams that are built for the right reasons and in the right place鈥攂ut this dam was built in the wrong place, for the wrong reasons and there are many across the country. When you kill a river, you kill everything around it for many many miles,鈥 she told me in 2015. She would go on to work closely as an advisor and activist for the , a non-profit that advocates for the Colorado River to return to a free-flowing state. She also authored five books including her nonfiction narrative, Glen Canyon Betrayed, with an introduction by Terry Tempest Williams.
Along with activists like Edward Abbey and David Brower, Lee was an environmentalist聽before such a phrase even existed, though聽she remained relatively unknown compared to others of her generation. (Her widest audience may have come in the 2014 award-winning documentary, .)聽But to those who were deeply involved with the canyon, Lee was an icon. 鈥淚 knew Katie for over ten years,鈥 says Eric Balken, executive director of the Glen Canyon Institute. 鈥淪he was always a fiery character, and she was one of the most passionate environmentalists to have existed. These last few years, she became more peaceful. She seemed ready to pass the environmental torch on to the next generation.鈥
Richard Martin, Lee鈥檚 friend and neighbor, says that Lee had experienced a few minor strokes in recent months. Yet when he talked with her on the phone a few days ago, she energetically sang a song and laughed heartily. 鈥淜atie had a special way of describing nature that made you really feel there,鈥 he says. 鈥淏ut people aren鈥檛 as interested in the places that Katie wrote about as they used to be. Contemporary life has gotten so extreme that I don鈥檛 know what people want when they go into the wilderness, with tours and rental boats. We built the boats, and it was exciting to do the journey our own way. I see that way of life passing by. I think Katie鈥檚 books will serve as a reminder of how these places used to be. I think that will be one of her legacies.鈥