— There’s something about females who grew up with several brothers. As children, they invariably relate well to both boys and girls. As adults, they get their rights — and help others get theirs, too.

Betty Browder Lee, of Cleburne, said, “It was a man’s world when I was growing up. I was athletic, living with four brothers, and there were no organized sports for girls. I spent my summers at the ballpark watching them play ball.

“Nobody wanted to invite five kids to their house, so everybody came to ours at 207 Madison. We had a big back yard with a garden, a smokehouse, China berry tree — almost like the country with chickens. You can still see where home plate and the bases were. I remember it as being huge, but it wasn’t.”

Her father, John Altee Browder, was a Santa Fe man. Her mother, Mary Lee, named all the boys with J — Jim, Joe, Jack, and John. Betty, next to last, was unique.

“I followed Jim. He was so creative, organizing our summers. With string we outlined a make-believe swimming pool in our yard. None of us stepped in it. We’d ride our bikes down to the city pool in the mornings and ride back for lunch. We’d rest for awhile, and go back.”  

When her brothers were 8 or 9 years old they were sacking groceries for Layland’s. She wanted a paying job, as well.

“My uncle was manager of Burr’s that became Levine’s in downtown Cleburne. When I was 10 he hired me to wrap packages for him. Then when I was in junior high I worked for Nell and Tom Davis as a hostess for their Liberty Hotel Grill. Two of the waitresses, Eldora Kirkpatrick and Jo Hall took me under their wings.”

No one in her family expected her to go to college — except maybe her brother, Jim.

“Jim was in TCU and he encouraged me to go ahead and take four years of English, just in case. My English teacher and Barton House Mistress, Leta Mae Cocke, told me I should become an English teacher. I was encouraged.”

Betty’s path had already crossed with another CHS student, Richard Lee.

Richard, born in Albany, Calif., had moved to Bono when he was 10. He was a year ahead of Betty in school.

He said, “My parents, Delmas ‘W. D.’ and Ola Lee were originally from here. Mother had a beauty shop in her home for over 50 years. Dad had a dairy there in Bono. He bought the Keene College dairy herd of Jerseys, and then added Holsteins.

“My B-team football coach, Glendon Broumley, nicknamed me ‘Bono’ and it caught on. If anybody calls for ‘Bono’ at my office, I tell them to put the call through. Somebody knows me.”

Richard’s home life was vastly different from Betty’s. An only child, he began caring for the calves when he was a very young, and cleaned the dairy barn every morning before he went to school.

By the time he was 12, Richard worked in the summers at the McLaughlin’s thresher. He remembered pulling ears of corn and roasting them on the manifold of the tractor and tossing up dead rattlesnakes to startle the tractor driver.

While in high school he took on more responsibility. He explained, “We had a food store in Fort Worth that bought our eggs after I graded them and packed them in cartons. I got 4 cents a dozen and earned my spending money for high school and college that way.”

When Richard was a junior he asked Betty to go with him to the junior-senior prom. She was dating a Baptist who didn’t dance, so she said yes. They had a good time — nothing more.

“We didn’t have another date for a year,” she said. “Then Richard’s senior year we dated steadily until he graduated and went to the University of Texas. He transferred to TCU when I graduated and entered Texas Wesleyan in Fort Worth.

“At college I dated different people — one for quite a while. I visited TCU once and saw him at a distance. I thought he looked good and then I saw a girl come out to meet him. I was so jealous.”

He had second thoughts, as well. At Thanksgiving in 1956, Richard came to her home and invited her to ride out to the state park.

She said, “As we sat there, he asked, ‘When are we going to stop this foolishness and get married?’

“I told him, ‘Whenever you ask me.’ So he did.”

They were engaged at Christmas and married the next September, with one year of college left.

As the first couple to be married in the new St. Mark United Methodist Church in Cleburne, they faced a challenge after their wedding reception.

She said, “My brothers had said they were going to capture us and keep us apart. My friend, Eldora and her police chief husband, Tom Kirkpatrick, came to our rescue. Tom handcuffed us together and took us to the old city jail (where the library is today) and locked us in a cell. Then Eldora came in her car to drive us to Burleson where our car was waiting. There I was in my suit, hat and little kid gloves down in the floorboard — but we made it.”

After college graduation in 1958, Betty taught at Morning Side Junior High, and then at Monnig Junior High until 1962, while they lived in Fort Worth. After graduation from TCU, Richard worked first for Swift and Company; then, for the Sid Richardson Company for 12 years. After he became a certified public accountant, he established his own firm in Fort Worth.

After the Lees moved to Cleburne in 1963, Richard commuted to his Fort Worth office daily until 2002, when he became affiliated with Wheatley and Fowler. He plans to retire at the end of this year and continue to raise Brangus cattle.

Betty said, “Richard never complained about the drive. He has always done what he has had to do — made the best of whatever life has brought him. He commuted for 40 years because we wanted to make our home here. It was his gift to me.”

They built a new home off of County Road 1434 in 2002, and their four children and their families all live nearby: Elizabeth and Tim Whitlock; Dick and Donna Lee; Jon Lee; and Matt and Julie Lee. They have nine grandchildren and will soon have seven great-grandchildren.

Their home is filled with photos and memorabilia of ancestors. When they took me back to see their rustic little guest cottage, named “Winston House” in honor of their daughter’s godmother, I was unprepared for what I encountered.

Betty said, “Mary Louise Winston and I taught together in Fort Worth. She had no children of her own and she delighted in being Elizabeth’s godmother. Our son, Matthew Winston Lee, named his son, Adam Winston Lee.”

The 100-year-old bed in the Winston House was the one in which its namesake was born. Old doors in the barn wood walls were painted in exotic swirls by artist, Dan Taylor, with gifts of the spirit and holy scripture words trailing through them. A guestbook was filled with notes from missionaries, ministers, and friends. Even among others, I felt solitude.

A place to read — to think — to pray.

The Lees’ 54 years of marriage has been a partnership of volunteering, serving, caring and sacrifice. Whether it was through the Geneva Overton Childcare Center, Operation Blessing volunteer leadership, or service to the city library or CISD schools, unpaid work has always been accomplished.

In 1980, the Lees and seven other families became founding members of Cleburne Bible Church.

Betty said, “We all worked together, mopping floors, scrubbing bathrooms, painting — to move into a corporate warehouse near the central fire station downtown. We stayed a year and then moved into the previous Westside Church of Christ at Pendell and West Henderson. It was so exciting to see our membership grow with new families.”

They have helped touch the world through the International Ministry to the Wounded and have traveled widely to train leaders to do the ministry in their own churches.

She said, “Those of us who have been victims need to be taught to forgive — because we are commanded by Jesus to do so. It is our job to listen to the victims’ stories and help them walk through it. Many were abused as children. They need release and to know that God uses many creative ways to punish those who will not repent. They need to see that they were not at fault.”

In 2007, Cleburne Bible Church congregation moved into a new building at 930 N. Nolan River Road. in Cleburne. Dr. David Denhartog is beginning his 30th year as pastor.

The Lees have faced real heartaches within their family. All, they say, have been overshadowed by God’s blessings — and they’ve traveled the world and walked where Jesus walked.

A man’s world? She knows better now. It belongs to God.



Larue Barnes may be reached at

laruebarnes@yahoo.com