Obit – Mr. Scott R. Lee

A highly decorated retired U. S. Navy veteran, Mr. Scott R. Lee of Gordonsville, has died at the age of 61 after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in March of this year. He was pronounced deceased at 3:58 a.m. Thursday morning June 6, 2024 at the Vanderbilt Wilson County Hospital in Lebanon where he was being treated for his illness.   

Funeral services from the Carthage Chapel of Sanderson Funeral Home are scheduled to be conducted on Saturday afternoon June 15th at 1 p.m. His pastor, Bro. Gary Farris will officiate. Burial with military honors by the Veterans Honor Guard of Cookeville and American Legion Post 57 of Carthage will follow in the Madewell family lot in the Garden of Peace at the Smith County Memorial Gardens.

The Lee family will receive friends only on Saturday June 15th from 10 a.m. until the 1 p.m. services at Sanderson in Carthage.

He was the only son of the late Belton Camilus Lee who died at the age of 40 on May 1, 1964 and Mary Nell Crawford Lee Autry who died at the age of 79 on January 14, 2014, and was born Scott Randall Lee in Cookeville on November 30, 1962.

He was a 1980 graduate of Upperman High School in Baxter.

On November 16, 2007 at the Smith County Government Building by then clerk Jimmy Norris, he was united in marriage to Enigma Community native, the former Darlene Madewell.

He proudly served our country with the United States Navy during the Persian Gulf War, the Afghanistan and Iraq War. He was inducted in Nashville on May 11, 1982 and was honorably discharged with the rank of Fleet Commander at the U. S. Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego, California with the rank of Fleet Commander on June 30, 2005. He had eleven years, six months and twenty one days of sea service of which two years and seventeen days were in foreign service. His total naval commitment was twenty three years, one month, and ten days.

For his meritorious service he received the following commendations: three Navy/Marine Commendation Medals, four Navy/Marine Achievement Medals, five Navy “E” Ribbons, two Meritorious Commendation Medals, six Good Conduct Medals, a Navy Expeditionary Medal, two National Defense Service Medals, and four Armed Forces Expeditionary Medals, Southwest Asia Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal, eight Sea Service Deployment Ribbons, Navy/Marine Corps Overseas Ribbon, Marksmanship Medal, and a Pistol Marksmanship Medal. 

Mr. Lee attended the Stone Seminary Freewill Baptist Church in Cookeville.

Following his military career he was employed with the United States Army Corps of Engineers, stationed at the Dale Hollow Dam and served as their campground engineer.

Surviving in addition to his wife are his three children, Christa Tilford and husband Thomas of San Angelo, Texas, J. M. Sidogen also of Texas and Dionell Lee of Oklahoma; two grandchildren.

SANDERSON of CARTHAGE