"Mimi" Lee (May 1, 1920 – August 9, 2011) was an American chemist, athlete and philanthropist who served as the First Lady of Maryland from 1977 to 1979 when her husband, then Lt.
[1] Lee's father, Pierre de Lagarde Boal, was an American diplomat who served as the United States' ambassador to Nicaragua and Bolivia during the 1940s.
[2] She soon became engaged to Francis Preston Blair Lee III, a naval officer during World War II, whom she married in 1944.
[2] Lee did not move to the Government House in Annapolis instead choosing to live with her children full-time at their home and farm in Silver Spring, Maryland.
[4] Lee privately and publicly disliked much of the ceremonial roles of a traditional First Lady, like the ribbon cuttings, and the practice of politics, which she called "frivolous.
"[1][2] Political columnist Frank DeFilippo, who served as press secretary for Governor Mandel, said of Lee, "I normally eschew the overused word 'unique,' but Mimi truly was.
I've covered first ladies going back to Avalynne Tawes, and Mimi was the only one of the bunch who truly loathed life in the mansion, which, when forced to be there, she roamed in Sunny's Surplus fatigues with cargo pockets.
"[1] Lee compared the formal role of First Lady, which she called "pomp," to social functions held at U.S. embassies when she was a girl.
[1][2] She once expressed irritation at the cancellation of a white water rafting trip on the Shenandoah River, but later told the Washington Post in the late 1970s that she had a "lovely" time hosting The Princess Anne.