Bio: William Burch Lee; Union, then Caddo Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller
Date: 1999-2000





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William Burch Lee.  Since taking the office of clerk of the United States
District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, William Burch Lee has
been a resident of Shreveport.  He is well known in several localities of
Louisiana, having been a man of prominence in public affairs in the State for
a number of years.

He was born at Farmerville, in Union Parish, Louisiana, in 1883, a son of the
late John M. Lee, Jr., for many years general agent of the Southern Pacific
Railway for Louisiana, and of Vada Burch Lee.  His father was a native also of
Union Parish and a representative of the Lee and Taylor families, who were
among the first settlers in that section of the state.

William Burch Lee from early childhood grew up at Monroe, in Ouachita Parish,
During his early education he was a pupil of Prof. Henry E. Chambers, author
of this history of Louisiana.  Mr. Lee in 1906 graduated with the A. B. degree
from the Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge, and he also had special
instruction in George Washington University in the City of Washington and
finished a course in a business college.  His purpose was, to enter the
profession of law, and he spent some time in a law office at Monroe, but
subsequently decided upon a business career.  Entering the service of Southern
Pacific Railway Company in the general traffic office at New Orleans, he left
there to become private secretary to Congressman, later United States Senator,
Broussard.  The duties of this position took him again to Washington.  On his
return to Louisiana he entered the business organization of the late F. H.
Drake, one of the state's foremost citizens and for many years extensively
engaged in railroad building, highway building, and other large public works
in North Louisiana.

Mr. Lee married, in 1908, Miss Irene Drake, a daughter of his former employer,
the late F. H. Drake, of Minden, Louisiana, one of the leading influential men
and capitalists of North Louisiana. While a resident of Minden Mr. Lee was
elected a representative to the Legislature from Webster Parish serving as
such one term.  President Wilson appointed him surveyor of customs for the
port of New Orleans, and while in this position he lived two ears in the home
of Professor Chambers, thus reliving one of his cherished early associations. 
Mr. Lee in May, 1917, was appointed clerk of the United States District Court
for the Western District of Louisiana. and began his official duties and his
official residence at Shreveport on May 7th of that rear.

Mr. Lee is a member of the Masonic Order and of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon
college fraternity.  He belongs to the First Baptist Church of Shreveport, and
is general secretary of the Sunday school of the church.  The children of Mr.
and Mrs. Lee are:  William Burch, Jr.,  Felix Drake and  Elizabeth Eames.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 186-187, by Henry E. Chambers. 
Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York,
1925.