American musician William James Edwards Lee lived from July 23, 1928, to May 24, 2023.
He was Spike Lee and Joie Lee’s father. Many of his son’s movies, such as She’s Gotta Have It (1986), School Daze (1988), Do the Right Thing (1989), and Mo’ Better Blues (1990), used his original music.
In addition to conducting the 1980 CD The New York Bass Violin Choir, Lee was engaged in many other jazz-related albums from the Strata-East record label.
Who is Bill Lee’s first wife Jacquelyn Lee?
Jacqueline (Jackie) Shelton, a 1954 Spelman College alumna, was his college love and a student at a nearby university when they were married.
Film director Spike Lee (born 1957), Christopher (born 1959, died 2014), still photographer David Lee (born 1961), actress Joie Lee (born 1962), and filmmaker Cinqué Lee (born 1966) are the five children he had with his first wife, Jackie. In 1959, the family relocated to Brooklyn’s Fort Greene.
On October 25, 1991, in Fort Greene, Lee was detained for possessing a little amount of heroin during a police narcotics raid in a park close to his home. In response to his imprisonment, Lee would later remark, “I’m glad I was arrested, It woke me up.”
