WINKIE LEE
May 11, 1955-March 20, 2010
Blanche Elizabeth "Winkie" Lee, 54, East Pine Street, died Saturday at Kitty Askins Hospice Center in Goldsboro.
The funeral will be held Tuesday at 7 p.m. at St. Luke United Methodist Church, with the Rev. Adam Seate officiating.
She was born May 11, 1955, in Rockford, Ill., to Barbara Outlaw Lee and the late Rev. Don Paul Lee of Goldsboro.
Winkie received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Methodist College in Fayetteville and her master's degree in literature from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Ill.
She was the features editor of The Goldsboro News-Argus for 24 years.
Her writing has appeared in Family Circle magazine, the Greenville Daily Reflector and Greenville Times, and she had a column in the Roanoke Rapids newspaper. She was also quoted in an article in The New York Times Aug. 24, 2003, about a writer's retreat she had attended in Quebec, Canada.
Most recently, Winkie was a freelance writer for the Christian Advocate and her latest article appeared earlier this month.
She also taught English at Lenoir Community and Pitt Community colleges and journalism at Wayne Community College, where she was also adviser of the college newspaper.
Winkie won several history awards from the North Carolina Society of Historians, including one for her story on Whitehall. She also won a first-place state press award from The Associated Press for excellence in the writing of profile features.
She also won an award from the Salvation Army for its bell-ringing program.
Winkie had a great love for the people of Wayne County.
She is survived by her mother, Barbara Outlaw Lee of Goldsboro; two sisters, Barbara Sugg of Snow Hill and Frances O'Brien of Waynesboro, Pa.; two brothers-in-law, Tim Sugg of Snow Hill and Raymond Patrick O'Brien of Pennsylvania; nieces and nephews, Stephanie Pope and husband, Steven, and their two sons, Hunter and Jacob, Stacy Ham-Lane and her son, Taylor, all of Snow Hill, and Patrick Lee O'Brien and Jennifer O'Brien of Pennsylvania; and two aunts, Jacqueline Bordeaux of Charleston, S.C., and Ruth Jackson of Sumter, S.C.
The family will receive friends and relatives following the service in the church fellowship hall.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Goldsboro charity of your choice.
Howell Funeral Home and Crematory is handling the arrangements, and condolences may be sent to www.howellfuneral.com.
(Pd)
Published in Obituaries on March 22, 2010 1:48 PM