The Lee MacLellan Family Story
Lee and Irma: a mid-western love story
"He was the nicest boy I had ever met".
That was my grandmother Irma Vere Baker describing her husband Lee when their children asked why Lee was the man she wanted to marry.
Lee and Irma were both mid-westerners, with mid-western values. They met at West Side High School in Minneapolis, where they both attended from 1912 to 1916. They would marry four years after graduating, in 1920.
They would remain married for 51 years, until Lee's death in 1971.
They would raise 3 daughters, have seven grandchildren, eight great grandchildren, and eight great great grandchildren (as of 2020).
Lee and Irma's love of family, determination, and sense of duty and service lasted from their marriage in 1920 to today, 2020, and hopefully it will go beyond that.
Irma Vera Baker and Lee Lesleigh MacLellan in their wedding clothes, c. 1920
And although it was 245 years from when Donald MacLellan was born in Scotland to the time of Lee and Irma's 50th wedding anniversary in 1970, I like to think our Scottish heritage lives on. After all, the oatmeal box that my great grandfather Angus used as a starting point for his MacLellan Mixer contains what I have as a staple at breakfast: oatmeal.
Lee and Irma out for a winter stroll in 1919 in Minneapolis, one year before their marriage. He was 25 at the time of this picture, she was 23
Irma and Lee in their later years. This picture was probably taken at their second home (after Brae Springs)