Rosemary Lee died Saturday after suffering a series of strokes.
Born “Rosa Mary” to LeRoy and Clara (Pipher) Gilliatt on May 20, 1922, she was a lifelong resident of Washington. She graduated from Washington High School in 1940 — the same year she wed her high school sweetheart, Richard George Lee. The two were married more than 60 years before his passing in 2004.
Rosemary is survived by her daughter Susan (Richard) Gwaltney of Salem, and her son Richard (Wanda Lynch) Lee of Evansville. She was the beloved grandmother to Gretchen (Evelyn Leder) Lee of San Francisco, California; Mark (Julia) Gwaltney of Denver, Colorado; Adam (Stacie) Gwaltney of Rochester, Minnesota; and Kristen (Robert) Bros of Northville, Michigan. Her great-grandchildren include Rose Leder-Lee, Sophie and Adelaide Gwaltney, Hannah and Ryan Gwaltney, and William and Mirielle Bros.
Rosemary is preceded in death not only by her husband, Richard George Lee, but also by her three sisters, Hallie Pope and Wilma Ellis of Detroit, Michigan, and Virginia Fitzpatrick of Washington, along with her two brothers Harold Gilliatt of Washington, and Robert Gilliatt of Phoenix, Arizona.
During World War II, Rosemary sewed parachutes while employed by the Reliance Manufacturing Company in Washington. She remained in the workforce after the war ended, working for several years at Uniroyal in Washington. Later she retired from the Naval Weapons Support Center near Crane.
She was a member for many years of the Maple Leaf Homemakers Club and the Wesley United Methodist Church.
Rosemary loved to read. (As a young mother she sometimes allowed her children to read at the dinner table because it gave her more time with her books, too!) She was a familiar patron of the Washington Carnegie Public Library, often volunteering at the Friends of the Library book sale. She once remarked that if she had been given the opportunity to go to college she would have liked to become a librarian.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Friends of the Washington Carnegie Public Library or to the Wesley United Methodist Church.
Services will be held at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Gill Funeral Home, 308 E. Walnut St., Washington, IN 47501. There will also be a visitation at the funeral home from 10 a.m. Wednesday until the time of service. Interment will be in Sugarland Memory Gardens in Washington. One may sign the online guestbook at www.gillsince1872.com.