In the early 1960s, Lee was born in Paxton, Illinois with six siblings and played volleyball alongside basketball in high school.
After leaving Western Illinois, she continued her assistant coaching tenure as a scout for the Iowa Hawkeyes from 1988 to 1995.
[4] While with Iowa, Lee and her team reached the Sweet Sixteen during the 1996 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament.
With the American women's basketball team, Lee was one of the assistant coaches during the 1998 R. William Jones Cup.
[11] When Lee ended her coaching career with Virginia Tech in 2004, she held multiple jobs including truck unloading and pet sitting.