Mignonette "Lee" Mountain

Mignonette "Lee" Mountain HOUSTON, TX - MIGNONETTE "LEE" MOUNTAIN was called home to be with her Heavenly Father on July 12, 2025. At her passing, she was surrounded by the love of her four children, and her many grandchildren, near and far, the people she loved most and who loved her the most. We are going to miss our Mother/Grandmom/Mamom/Grandma/Grandnana more than words can describe, but we know that she is in Heaven reunited with her wonderful, loving husband, and our father, Joe Mountain. Lee was born the 9th of July 1931 in Charleston, South Carolina. Her mother, Mignonette Harrison, and her father-figure/uncle, Harold Ham, preceded her in passing from this life to the next. After graduating from Central High School in Washington, D.C. at the age of 15, Lee earned a B.A. in English and Education from George Washington University and an Ed.D. from Penn State. It was at Penn State where Mom met the love of her life and her best friend, Joe Mountain. They started a conversation on their first date that only ended when Dad passed away. They were truly soulmates and were kind and loving to each other every day of their 54-year marriage. They both worked extremely hard and were very successful, but they always prioritized God and family in their lives. They loved to travel and took their children on cross country adventures. After their kids were grown and/or irritating teenagers, they continued to travel the world, just the two of them, bringing back fun stories of their journeys. Our Mom took care of our Dad during his last eight years, where he was plagued with Alzheimer's, and their love never stopped or diminished. They were an incredible couple and a model of an excellent marriage for their children, grandchildren and anyone they met. Our Mom's career was simply amazing. She started teaching students in Central High School in Arlington, Virginia at the age of 20 and retired from her teaching career at the remarkable age of 89, as literacy Professor at University of Houston in 2020. She taught teachers how to be teachers. Her students loved her, particularly the ones that she shepherded through the difficult process of getting published, as well as those earning their Ph.D.s and Ed.D.s. She claimed to have never worked a day in her life "because if you are doing what you love, how could it be called work?". She wrote over 300 books and created many educational games. It was fun for her children, and then grandchildren, as we were the early testers of all books and games. Mom took up software development in her 80s, saying that she loved the element of choice that the digital medium offered. She put her curriculum online five years before COVID. And she was recognized for her excellence. Mom won the Freedom Foundation Award and the McGuffey Award for her book Uncle Sam and the Flag. In recognition for her success as a teacher, Mom was the recipient of The University of Houston Award for Career Achievements in Teaching and she was also a Google Scholar in Literacy Education and Mayor Turner declared August 21, 2020 as Dr. Mignonette "Lee" Mountain day, in honor of her exceptional career and presented her a Key to the City. Equally impressive, and more important to us, was the love, time and passion she brought to parenting and grandparenting. She loved each of her children, children's spouses and grandchildren broadly, deeply and unconditionally. Our childhood was enhanced with her readings of C.S. Lewis's Narnia series at the dinner table, complete with different voices for each character. She taught us all how to read before first grade and taught us how to play chess, but most of all, how to be good humans. She went on cross country camping trips joyfully with the family, even though she was not enthralled with camping. She convinced the family to forgo TV time by having us play every type of board game, Clue being the favorite, as well as every type of card game with extremely competitive, semi-violent games of Spoons being the favorite. Our Mom helped all of her children with our schoolwork, some more reluctant for her assistance than others, and that writing support continued with her editing grandchildren's high school papers and college admissions essays. She was a fierce cheerleader for each one of us; Mom celebrated our accomplishments no matter how large or small, and listened to our challenges. She was always a great listener, but she really honed the skill of listening without providing unrequested advice with her grandchildren. She was interested and involved in all of our lives until her last days and could always be counted on for a positive comment or finding the silver lining to the cloud of a challenge. Our Mom was always reading religious books, journaling, and seeking out ways to expand her relationship with God. She was a Lector, as well as an Extraordinary Minister at St. Michael's Catholic Church, and attended mass every Sunday. She and our dad strongly believed in acts of service and led couple's bible study and Pre-Cana pre-marriage counselling. They also set up a scholarship for aspiring teachers at the University of Houston that has financially supported over 40 students at this point. With all that said, Mom experienced her fair share of life challenges, and she faced them with wisdom and grace. The largest was when our Dad, Joe, passed away. Our Mom had lost her life partner, best friend and husband. No amount of time with children, grandchildren or work could fill that hole. For the first time in our lives, our Mother was lost. She went through months of deep sadness. Then she attended a Baptist Grief Counseling Group and started to rally. The "New Normal" as she called, was different, but good. She started a Grief Counseling Group at her Catholic Church, St. Michael's, which is still going strong 15 years later (she would joke, "the Baptists don't have all the solutions for grief"). She and several other women at her home condo, Four Leaf Towers, formed social groups based on activities (book clubs, speaker events, card clubs). At the age of 90, she signed up for a three-year course to become a Spiritual Advisor at The Emmaus Spirituality Center and she loved every minute of it. She not only believed in service to others, she lived it. Her 90th birthday was a family celebration where children and grandchildren spoke at length about their love and admiration for her. At the age of 93, she had a small birthday party at Four Leaf Towers. The guest list grew from 30 to 60 and ended with over 90 well-wishers showing up. At the event, a speaker referred to her as "Relentlessly Optimistic" which is an amazing and accurate moniker for our Mom. She was not a rose-colored glasses optimist, but she usually found real, concrete positive aspects in situations and people. Our Mom was an outstanding teacher, in the classroom and out. During her last week of life, she continued to teach her children and grandchildren about being gracious and kind in a very difficult situation. When asked in the hospital about the level of her pain from a fractured pelvis she said, "Well I have arthritis, neuropathy and scoliosis, but I decided long ago to ignore those pains, as they were just part of getting old. This pain is much harder to ignore." She learned the name of every therapist, nurse, caregiver and doctor and was incredibly positive and complimentary toward them, even with her physical pain and mental concern about the long recovery. We are really going to miss our Mother/Grandmom/Mamom/Grandma/Grandnana, but know that God saw a person who led a life well lived, and granted her wish of a relatively fast passing. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to her favorite cause, the Joe and Lee Mountain Scholarship at the University of Houston by clicking on the link and entering "Mountain" in the search bar https://giving.uh.edu/gift. Lee Mountain is survived by a large and loving family. Her four children and their spouses, Rocky and Janet, Cliff and Linda, Smoky and Alison, Candy and Alicia will miss her greatly, as will her fifteen grandchildren and one great- grandchild, Carolina, Jackson, Bryce, Sierra (Jordan), Crystal (Grant), Brooke, Stone, Mackenzie, Andrew, Charlotte, Eva, Erica, Thomas, Maddi, Zach, and Weston. A visitation will be held Thursday, July 24th, from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. at Earthman's Funeral Directors (8303 Katy Freeway). A funeral mass, celebrating the life of Lee Mountain will be held at St. Michael's Catholic Church (1801 Sage Road) at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, July 25th, with a funeral reception held at the St. Michael's Parish Life Center immediately after the funeral.