Her early life involved a great deal of travel, including Hawaii, the Philippines, Japan, China, Guam, and much of Europe.

When her father was stationed in Washington, D.C., as assistant surgeon general, she sneaked out at night to listen intently to the suffrage debates in Congress.

[1] Her formal education was limited until she entered Rogers High School in Newport, Rhode Island, where she graduated at age 16.

[citation needed] She was admitted to the State Bar of California in January 1923 and practiced law in San Francisco until July 1924.

She married William Scott Lee on June 11, 1924, and moved to Portland, Oregon, where her husband, a chemical engineer, became an executive for the Standard Oil Company.

McCullough Lee was admitted to the Oregon State Bar in October 1924 and began a small private legal practice in December.

[5] Lee resigned from the Oregon Senate to assume the vacant city council seat of Clark D. Van Fleet,[2] appointed to her by Mayor Earl Riley (on the recommendation of the man who became her most consistent opponent, commissioner Fred.

She forced the removal of slot machines from American Legion, Eagles, and Shrine facilities and even the prestigious Multnomah Athletic Club.

She survived a recall effort in October 1949 and derision in the press (she was called "No Sin Lee" after closing the Chinese gambling establishments), but her anti-gambling stance likely cost her a second mayoral term.

[9] The papers of Dorothy McCullough Lee are housed at Radcliffe College, in the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America.