Mabel A. Barbee Lee (1884–1978) was an American writer, teacher at Victor High School, and administrator of Colorado College, the

University of California in Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

, and other institutions.

Biography

Mabel was born in

Silver Reef, Utah Silver Reef is a ghost town in Washington County, Utah, United States, about northeast of St. George and west of Leeds. Silver Reef was established after John Kemple, a prospector from Nevada, discovered a vein of silver in a sandstone format ...

, on April 11, 1884, and later grew up in Cripple Creek, Colorado. She attended Colorado College before she started her career as a teacher. She married mining engineer Howard Shields Lee on June 15, 1908 in Denver, Colorado, and followed him to mining areas across the continent. He died in 1918 during an influenza outbreak and she went on to become dean of women at Colorado College from 1922 to 1929. She then served as administrator at Bennington College,

Radcliffe Radcliffe or Radcliff may refer to: Places * Radcliffe Line, a border between India and Pakistan United Kingdom * Radcliffe, Greater Manchester ** Radcliffe Tower, the remains of a medieval manor house in the town ** Radcliffe tram stop * ...

, Whitman, and the University of California, Berkeley. She then returned to Colorado and visited Cripple Creek in order to write ''Cripple Creek Days''. She wrote a few more books before she died in Santa Barbara, California, on December 12, 1978. There is an archive of her manuscripts in the Western History and Genealogy Department at the Denver Public Library and another, with her correspondence with

Lowell Thomas Lowell Jackson Thomas (April 6, 1892 – August 29, 1981) was an American writer, actor, broadcaster, and traveler, best remembered for publicising T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia). He was also involved in promoting the Cinerama widescreen ...

at the Colorado College Library. In 1930, she wrote an article titled "Censoring the Conduct of College Women" that was published in ''

Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

''. In 1959, she appeared on ''

This Is Your Life This Is Your Life may refer to: Television * ''This Is Your Life'' (American franchise), an American radio and television documentary biography series hosted by Ralph Edwards * ''This Is Your Life'' (Australian TV series), the Australian versio ...

'' as a part of the life of Lowell Thomas, her former Victor High School English student. She is buried with her parents, Johnson R. Barbee and Katherine "Kitty" Appleby, in Mount Pisgah Cemetery, Cripple Creek, Colorado.US Represented
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Published works

*''Cripple Creek Days'', 1958 Foreword by

*''And Suddenly It's Evening, A Fragment of Life'', 1963 *''The Rainbow Years'', 1966 *''Back in Cripple Creek'', 1968 *''The Gardens in My Life; An Intimate Memoir'', 1970

Awards

*1958:

Spur Award Spur Awards are literary prizes awarded annually by the Western Writers of America (WWA). The purpose of the Spur Awards is to honor writers for distinguished writing about the American West. The Spur awards began in 1953, the same year the WWA wa ...

for Best Nonfiction, ''Cripple Creek Days''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Mabel A. Barbee 1884 births 1978 deaths 20th-century American historians Colorado College alumni Writers from Colorado Writers from Utah People from Washington County, Utah American women historians 20th-century American women writers People from Cripple Creek, Colorado