Lee Clements
Feb. 8, 1938-Dec. 28, 2017
San Jose, California
Submitted by Dency Nelson

Lee Clements, most recently of San Jose, CA, died of complications due to a long-time heart condition, exacerbated by a recent bout of pneumonia, the evening of December 28, 2017, en route to the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center Hospital from his loving home of the past several years, the Empress Care Center, San Jose. He was 79 years old. Born Buddy Lee Clements in Texarkana, Arkansas, the son of the late Jesse Lee Clements and the late Melva Anderson Clements Gray, Lee lived in Texarkana, Texas, until the age of eight, when he and his mother moved to Seminole, Oklahoma, with his mother’s second husband and Lee’s stepfather. Lee attended a nearby country school and later graduated from Strother High School, before attending the University of Oklahoma where he earned both a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Theatre, paying for that education himself with part-time jobs, including one at a local bank. Leaving Oklahoma in the early 1960s, Lee came first to San Luis Obispo, California, and soon thereafter to San Jose, California, where he began his teaching career at Del Mar High School. In 1964, he came to Menlo-Atherton High School in Atherton, California, where he would spend over twenty years as both an English and Drama Teacher and the Producer/Director of dozens of Dramatic and Musical Productions for that high school. He also continued his own education throughout his career, taking classes and accumulating more college credits and certifications every summer in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles and New York. For several years after retiring from Menlo-Atherton High School, he assisted in nearby productions at both the high school and community level. Lee touched the lives of literally hundreds of students-- “his children”-- who participated in those productions and whose lives were changed by his influence and nurturing. Many remained his life-long friends. Lee is survived by his two stepsisters, Amelia Carol Little and Linda Lea Varvil of Norman, Oklahoma, his half-brother, Dale T. Gray of Oklahoma City, seven nieces and nephews and fifteen grand-nieces and nephews. A memorial service will be held at 2:00PM on February 8, 2018, which would have been Lee’s 80th birthday, at Bay Area Mortuary Services Community Chapel, 1701 Little Orchard Street., San Jose, CA 95125, telephone 408-998-2202. Following the service, friends and family will retire to a nearby restaurant to continue reminiscing and to plan a Celebration of Lee’s Life for sometime in the Spring. In lieu of flowers, the family and friends request that contributions be made to Not In Our Town in Memory of Lee Clements at: https://www.niot.org

Tags: arts/media, teacher/educator