Chester J. Lee

Chester J. Lee, nearly 97 years old, and formerly of Lexington, Ridgely, Alamo, Memphis, and Milan, TN, passed away in his home in Somerville, TN, on the morning of Thursday, October 15, 2026, surrounded by his loving family.

Chester grew up with his mother and 5 siblings on a farm, born just 5 days after the stock market crash of 1929. His mother was the best cook ever, and kept his family well fed and happy despite the Great Depression. He grew up knowing how to fix or repair just about anything and that served him well in his military service.

Chester was in the National Guard in high school and joined the Navy upon graduating in 1949, where he was a private first class on the USS Hector AR7, a destroyer tender posted out of Long Beach, California. He met the love of his life December 2, 1951, when home on leave, when he and Pat were set up on a blind day by their friends Clovis Carter and Don Sanderson, a fellow Navy man from Alamo. Chester and Pat wrote letters back and forth while he was deployed, and married December 20, 1952, when he returned home on leave.

After his 4 years of service, they moved to Memphis, where he worked for Hunter Fan and then South Central Bell Telephone company. Working in installation at first, he installed many telephones, including a phone for Elvis’ mother. Chester later moved up to switchman and spent 36 years with Bell telephone companies in Memphis and Milan, TN. Chester and Pat loved to go fishing for crappie and catfish on the weekends, and they later rode a motorcycle together to all but 4 of these United States. Another hobby was flying remote control airplanes and playing music with friends at Eliot’s Music Store in Milan, TN. There wasn’t a chord on the guitar that he didn’t know and play on his Taylor guitar. He enjoyed playing gospel, country, and bluegrass with friends and family at jam sessions and festivals around west Tennessee.

From his 30’s on, Chester was a master mason of the White Station Mason Lodge, later merged into Unity Lodge #95, and he has 62 years of membership in the lodge, including Master of the Lodge in 1972. Chester could fix anything broken, and he invented and built numerous devices to solve problems, including a rolling stand for an upright bass and a plexiglass extension table for a sewing machine, so Pat could sew together quilt tops. 

Chester is preceded in death by his mother, Myrtle Mohler and siblings, Elmer (Eubie) Wood, Delmer (Dewey) Donavan, Mae (Howard) Castell, Louise (Nick) Tinta, and Marie Rabe (Dave), as well as his father Chester P. Wheeler of St. Louis, MO, and brothers Jerry (Barbara) Wheeler, and Neil Wheeler of Missouri.

Chester leaves behind his beloved wife of nearly 74 years, Patsye R. Lee, and his daughters, Sylvia (Martin) Edwards of Somerville, Michelle (Chester) Echlin, and Melissa (Ralph) Norwood of Oakland, TN, along with grandchildren Ronnie Thomas, Jr., of Oakland, Toni Burns (Tim) O’Kane of Cordova, and Trish Carver of Arlington, TN, and great grandchildren including Jacob Burns, Dain Carver, Joshua Burns, Aubrey Carver, and EmmyLee Carver, step grandchildren, step-great-grandchildren, and a step-great-great-grandson. 

Funeral Services for Mr. Lee will be at 1:00 Monday afternoon, October 19, 2026, at the Peebles West Funeral Chapel at Oakland with interment following at Fayette County Memorial Park on Highway 64. A visitation for Mr. Lee will be from 12:00 noon until 1:00 Monday afternoon, October 19, 2026, at the chapel.