Margaret Draper Lee Memorial
Scholarship Endowment

Serving as first lady was nothing new to Margaret Draper Lee. When her husband, J. Bracken Lee, was elected governor of Utah in 1948, she had already served as first lady of Price for twelve years while Bracken was mayor. And after the Lee family left the governor’s mansion, she again served as first lady, this time of Salt Lake City while her husband was mayor there for twelve years --- all told, a record-setting thirty-two years.

Margaret Draper, a descendant of early Mormon pioneer settlers, was born in Wellington, Carbon County, on September 8, 1909. Orphaned at age sixteen, she was left with the responsibility of taking care of her three younger siblings. After graduating with honors from Carbon High School, she worked as a secretary and teller at Carbon State Bank and as a bookkeeper for a Price lumber company. She then became deputy County Clerk for Carbon County and, while serving in that capacity, was elected the youngest president of the Utah State Municipal League.

It was while serving as deputy clerk that she met J. Bracken Lee, a widowed insurance and real estate agent in Price. They married in February, 1928. They became the parents of four children: Helen, James, Jon, and Richard.

Politically astute, Margaret encouraged her husband to enter political life and campaigned actively for him as he ran for a variety of local and state offices during the next four decades. She was regarded by many as a tremendous political asset to her husband. She seemed to be popular with everyone, even her husband’s political opponents.

Throughout her life, Margaret was an active member of a number of clubs including The Ladies Literary Club, the Carbon College Alumni Association, and she was a Girl Scout Commissioner and Troup Leader for 15 years. She was an avid reader interested in poetry, Utah art, and western history. She performed an original program, Wonderful Women of the West, some 270 times between 1948 and 1956.