Oral history with Reverend Clay F. Lee, minister of the Methodist church

              Oral history with Reverend Clay F. Lee, minister of the Methodist church
This oral history is provided through a cooperative project of University of Southern Mississippi Libraries and USM's Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage.
Funding provided by a National Leadership Grant for Libraries from the Institute for Museum and Library Services
The transcript is presented here for reference purposes only. Interviews in this collection are protected by copyright. PERMISSION TO PUBLISH MUST BE REQUESTED from the Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage. Please call ( 601) 266- 4574 for more information.
Biography
The Reverend Clay F. Lee was born March 3, 1930, in Laurel, Mississippi, to Mr. C. F. and Margaret Wilson Lee, who came to the state from Tennessee in 1927. Mr. Lee was an independent businessman, a grocery man. The family was small, Clay had only one sister. Clay Lee gained his elementary and secondary education in Laurel, graduating from high school there in 1947.
Although he earlier had dreamed of attending the United States Military Academy, and eventually was offered an appointment to do so, during his third year of high school young Mr. Lee had decided upon that his real calling was with the church. He recalls that " I thought I wanted to go into church music because I love music and had some talent, I think, in that field."
Upon graduation from high school he matriculated at Millsaps College, a Methodist institution in Jackson, Mississippi, and initially majored in English because " I just had a great love for the poetry and what it meant in terms of human life." Subsequently “ I decided that I really needed to go another direction," so he majored in Philosophy. As a junior in college at Millsaps he served his first pastorate. He recalls that " when I started preaching I was a junior in college. I was appointed to a little rural charge. . . a little community known as Center Ridge, and the church was Unity Methodist Church. I wasn't dry behind the ears yet."
Having won his degree at Millsaps, Reverend Lee immediately enrolled for graduate work at the Candler School of Theology, Emory University, in Atlanta, Georgia. Upon his graduating there in 1953, he then embarked on his ministerial mission full time. He notes that " in our church you are appointed to a church, but you are only appointed one year at a time." Nevertheless, Reverend Lee's pastorates mostly have been multi- year, ranging from two, three and four, and even up to seven years. In his present position, in his fifth year as pastor, his is the fourth longest in the church's one hundred and forty- four year history. He was called out of the pulpit by the church officials for other responsibilities, serving seven years before coming to Galloway Memorial. He served as program director for five years and " what it was supposed to do was coordinate all of the ministries of the church." He was in that position from 1969 to 1974 and then was appointed district superintendent for the southern half of the state of Mississippi. In that position, which he occupied for two years, " I was responsible for working with the different institutions [ of the church].” mus- coh. leec. doc Page 1 of 49