Marianna Lee

(From Ulmer Funeral Home)

Marianna Grant Lee

June 19, 1933 – June 12, 2025

Marianna was born to Everett and Winnie Grant in 1933 and was raised on a farm near Morrisville, MO, in Polk County. The farm was fairly large, with several kinds of livestock, including sheep and work horses. Her family lived the typical pre-electric rural life – huge gardens, reading by lamplight, heating with wood. Her dad was one of the first in Polk County to install electricity in their rural home.

Marianna attended SMS in Springfield, MO, where she majored in Home Economics and where she met her husband, James W. Lee, Jr., who was from the Carthage, MO area. They married in 1954. In 1957 they had a daughter, Susan Elaine.

Jim and Marianna farmed in Jasper County, MO all their working years. They raised cattle and grew row crops and alfalfa hay. Marianna worked alongside Jim, driving tractors, combines, conditioners, moving irrigation pipes, whatever she could do. When she had time, she was quite an accomplished seamstress.

Both she and Jim were very aware of wildlife and natural events. She told of a coyote who watched her for hours while she drove a tractor and of an enormous cat print in an untilled area of a field that they farmed. They enjoyed watching the deer and birds.

Marianna and Jim often helped family and friends in whatever way was needed.

Let to cherish her memory is her daughter, Susan Lee Foster, Wright City, MO; her granddaughter, Jennifer Mosby and her husband, Colby Mosby, and their 2 children, Alana and Josiah, Bella Vista, AR.

She was preceded in death by her husband of 65 years, James W. Lee, Jr.; her son-in-law, Richard Stephen “Steve” Foster; her grandson, Timothy Paul Foster; her parents, Everett and Winnie Grant; and her brother, Joe Winn Grant.

Services will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Monday, June 23, 2025, at Ulmer Funeral Home in Carthage, MO. Visitation will be held from 12:00 to 1:30 p.m. Burial will be at Sarcoxie Cemetery in Sarcoxie, MO. Online condolence may be made at www.ulmerfh.com.

Arrangements are under the care and direction of Ulmer Funeral Home.