Dorothy Joy Lee passed away March 23, 2025 in Salt Lake City, Utah from natural causes in the weeks after a fall in her home. She was 91 years old.
Joy, as she preferred to be called, was born in Christchurch, England in 1933, and moved with her family to Coventry as a child. She lived in Coventry during WWII, where the family lost two homes to bombings during the war, eventually settling in a home belonging to her uncle, which remained in the family until earlier this year. As a young woman, she served in the Congregationalist Church in England as a Sunday School teacher, as well as the Scouting program. It was in Coventry where she met and married her future husband, JAN Lee. Shortly after their marriage, the couple, along with their eldest son, Andrew, moved to Canada, then to Massachusetts, and eventually to Blacksburg and Montgomery County, where she lived for 42 years. During that time, both JAN and Joy remained actively involved in Scouting, sponsoring a Cub Scout pack in their home, and serving on numerous administrative boards. In her later years, Joy was a regular participant in the Blacksburg Seniors and traveled extensively with the group, and also with her friend Anne Gorsline. When her health started to decline, Joy moved to Salt Lake City in October 2016 to be with her daughter Jo-Anne, until Joy’s death earlier this year.
Joy was a loving, devoted mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, and will be deeply missed by all that knew her for the warm, cheerful and caring woman that she was. She is survived by her ex-husband, JAN, her four children Andrew, Derek, Jo-Anne and Stuart, her grandchildren Barett, Anna and Rachael, and her great-grandchildren.