Ione Coker Lee

Married to the late Dr John E. Lee for sixty-three years, Ione was an attentive mother and a gracious hostess for many friends and innumerable discussion groups. She emanated serenity, reserving comments for a few well-timed observations. She enjoyed refinement in the home, expressing a strong preference for fine teacups over mugs. She was proud of her grandchildren, researched matters of etiquette on their behalf, and encouraged thank you notes by both example and exhortation.

In her youth Ione was a talented pianist and a skilled equestrian. Later in life, she entered (and won) flower arranging competitions. She enjoyed producing botanical drawings and watercolors. But perhaps more than anything else, Ione was what we now call a ‘lifelong learner.’ An elastic striver, she was always eager to acquire knowledge and share it with others. She was committed to education, pushing herself and everyone in her family to improve. Whenever possible she was taking her young children and grandchildren to museums, nature exhibitions and planetariums; she was a relentless itinerary-maker.

Ione was a thoughtful traveller. During the summer of her junior year in college, she accompanied her grandmother (whom the Eisenhower administration had named ‘American Mother of the Year’) on a tour through Europe where, among other experiences, she had tea with Queen Juliana of the Netherlands. In married life, beyond the rest of Europe, she and John travelled to Japan, India, and Cuba long before it became common to do so. She visited China shortly after the Cultural Revolution. Ione and John took each grandchild on a trip to the destination of their choice to celebrate their tenth birthdays.

Born and raised in Hartsville SC, Ione stood out within the prominent Coker family that was often at the center of economic and cultural life in South Carolina. She attended St. Catherine’s School (1955), Mount Holyoke College (1959), and completed her Masters degree in English literature at UNC Chapel Hill (1960). As a young woman she taught English at Penn State, West Chester University, Pennsylvania. Later, she studied at Oxford University over a decade of summers and faithfully attended lectures at the Atlanta History Center. She served on the Board of Coker University and endowed a scholarship in its new graduate nursing program.

Ione embodied a love of gardening and nature. She served on the board of the North Carolina Botanical Garden and was a founding member of the Southern Garden History Society. Through her long-time membership in the Cherokee Garden Club, she became a steady leader and advocate of the Cherokee Garden Library where she co-authored one of the Library’s seminal publications and served four terms on its Board. She led the effort to designate Coker Experimental Farms in Hartsville, SC as a national historical landmark, and helped established its interpretive learning center focused on agricultural history.

Ione is survived by her two children Sarah (Chris) Elson Choa of London/UK and Jonathan (Susan) Lee of Hartsville/SC; her five grandchildren Isabel (Nico) Elson-Enriquez of Palo Alto/CA, Everett “Evie” Elson of Charlottesville/VA, Edward Elson of New York/NY, Mary Lee of Boston/MA, and John “Jack” Lee of Daytona Beach/FL, and step-grandchildren Lauren Meyers of Charleston/SC, Cameron Meyers of Charleston/SC, Kyle Meyers of Hartsville/SC, Nicholas Choa of Florence/Italy, Henry Choa of Los Angeles/CA, and loving nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be held at Trinity Presbyterian Church, Howell Mill Road NW on Friday, April 24th at 2:00. Contributions in her memory can be made to Cherokee Garden Library by emailing [email protected] or calling 404-814-4046.