Catherine MacDonald Lee Brinkley

1930 - 2017

Catherine MacDonald Lee Brinkley

Virginia Beach - Catherine MacDonald Lee Brinkley, age 86, died peacefully on 27 April 2017 at her home in Bay Lake. She was born in Norfolk on September 27, 1930, in the Sarah Leigh Hospital, overlooking the Hague, the daughter of the Reverend Lt. Col. William Byrd Lee, Jr. and Mary Alexander Seddon Lee. With her father's appointment as Rector of Holy Innocents Episcopal Church (now St. Dunstan's) in 1933, the family moved to Auburn, Alabama, where she and her siblings were raised and where she attended Lee County public schools. In 1948, she graduated from St. Catherine's School in Richmond, Virginia. The Lee family often returned to spend summer vacations with grandfather William Little Seddon at Willoughby Spit in Norfolk, where they memorably attempted to ride out the Chesapeake-Potomac Hurricane of August 23-24, 1933, with all souls surviving, including the family dog Skippy, though the family had to be rescued by boats. She attended Auburn University 1948-1950 and graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1952, with a Bachelor of Arts in History and Art History.

Kate, as her family and friends called her, began her working career in Richmond, Virginia, in the public relations department of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce (1953-55) and as an elementary school teacher in Henrico County (1955-57). She crossed the Atlantic by steamship to marry fiancé Clifton Stanworth Brinkley on Valentine's Day 1957 at King's Chapel, Gibraltar, where her father officiated. She continued work as an elementary school teacher in Madrid, Spain, at the United States Air Force Dependent School (through 1959). From Madrid, the couple traveled extensively throughout Europe and Russia and made many lifelong friends, among them Jackson and María Gilbert and their families. Kate was able to continue her study of art history with visits to the Prado, the Louvre, and scores of museums and cathedrals during a pivotal time in the rebuilding of Europe and a vigorous period for modern art.

After returning to the United States, Kate worked briefly at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., where she first became interested in professional library work. Settling in her birthplace with husband Stan, she began her career at the Kirn Memorial Library as a reference librarian, a post she held 1960-1965 and again 1984-1999, taking time in the intervening years to raise her two children at 508 Mowbray Arch in the Ghent neighborhood and to work part-time at United Virginia Bank and at a start-up firm known as The Tour Company, which organized custom tours for convention-goers in Tidewater. Through the 1980s, she also helped her husband in the office at his new venture, Brinkley Engineering, which closed in 1990. During her second stint at the Kirn, Kate was especially helpful to people researching the history of the city and also to homeless people who in those days sought shelter and support there.

Kate's life was enriched by long friendships and by a devotion to the arts in Norfolk. She was on the first team of docents when the Chrysler Museum opened its doors in 1971. In July 1975, she was elected as member of the Norfolk School Board, and she worked very hard in that capacity through December 1981. She was unusually committed to the schools, visiting every public school every year to learn directly from the principals what they needed to succeed. During the 1970s and in some cases into the 1990s, she served on the boards of WHRO-TV, Virginia Opera Association, Irene Leache Memorial Foundation, The Norfolk Forum, United Communities Fund, and many smaller organizations. In the first years of the Opera, she opened her home to rising young talents, who lodged with the family during the performance season. At that time, too, Kate was a volunteer with with Lee's Friends, United Way, Meals on Wheels, Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters, and other charitable organizations and was a member of the Junior League. In 1996, she was certified as a Mediator for family court. Hailed by the Virginian-Pilot newspaper as "a cultural leader" in 1975, Kate shied from the limelight, preferring to work behind the scenes. She was a parishioner of St. Paul's Church in Norfolk for 57 years and served on the church's Vestry.

But perhaps more than for any other fine quality, and more than for her civic contributions, Kate will be remembered for the depth and longevity of her friendships and particularly for her devotion to friends and family who needed help during times of trouble. Kate rendered all manner of logistical assistance for friends in need, but it was her ability to listen, empathize, and counsel gently that made her a rare and wonderful person to so many. For artists and writers, both aspiring and professional, she spent countless hours reading manuscripts and poetry, studying paintings, and offering honest opinions. For those battling disease, depression, or the aftermath of divorce or the death of a loved one, Kate showed up to share and ease the burden-and showed up day after day, year after year. She sat at sickbeds, she wiped tears and raised smiles, she helped families write obituary notices, she stood by in quiet comfort at funerals. In the decades before social media, she kept in touch by letter and telephone with trademark steadfastness. For those who survive her, Kate's buoyant, hopeful presence and kind ministerings will be missed beyond measure. It was surely on account of this gentle nature, so disposed toward the care of others, that she was named the Answer To Saint Catherine in her final year of high school. She always believed that the children of clergy members had a special duty to help the less fortunate, and she lived as she believed. As her parents taught her, so she urged her children: launch your lives with optimism and egalitarian spirit, and always have faith in goodness.

Kate is survived by her son Edward Stanley Brinkley II, her daughter Mary Seddon Brinkley Webster, son-in-law Nathan Paul Webster, grandchildren Daniel Patrick Webster, Paul Stanworth Webster, and Eliza Catherine Webster, and great-grandchild Nathan Andrew Webster, as well as by many dear nieces and nephews and cousins. She was especially close to niece Dorothy Raine Lee, who helped Kate and her siblings through the years in every imaginable way. She was preceded in death by her parents, by her husband of 59 years, Clifton Stanworth Brinkley, by her sister, Mary Alexander Seddon Lee Stapp, by her brothers, William Seddon Lee and William Byrd Lee III, and by her specially loved cousins Evelyn Byrd Page Hutcheson Werth and Anne Martin Wilson Rowe. It is impossible to name here the many other friends and relations whom she loved and by whom she was cherished.

A memorial service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, 4 May at St. Paul's Episcopal Church conducted the Reverend Scott Hennessy. A reception will follow at the parish house.

The family would like to thank the wonderful staff of Bay Lake for their many kindnesses over the years. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Irene Leache Memorial Foundation, Lee's Friends, or the Southern Poverty Law Center. H. D. Oliver Funeral Apartments will handle funeral arrangements; condolences may be offered on their website (hdoliver.com).