"[3] She attended Amarillo College and graduated from Northwestern University with a bachelor of science degree in speech.

[3] She honed her acting skills further by attending Max Reinhardt’s School of the Theatre in Hollywood, California.

[1] Lee first performed as a professional while she was a student at Northwestern, earning $16.50 per week reading commercials on a radio soap opera.

[2] Television shows on which Lee appeared included Public Defender,[5] The Millionaire,[6] Pepsi-Cola Playhouse,[7] and Our Miss Brooks.

[8] After visiting Texas on a vacation and New Mexico on a holiday,[9] Lee created two stock companies[3] in 1948 and opened two theaters, El Teatro in Santa Fe and the Sombrero Playhouse in Phoenix, in an effort to make the southwestern United States "the birthplace of legitimate drama, which then could be performed in the East".

[11] Actors who performed in one or both of Lee's theaters included William Bendix, Diana Lynn, Guy Madison, Zasu Pitts, Cesar Romero, and Mickey Rooney.