Jeff Lee

Jeff Lee, age 61, of Forest City, passed away Monday, December 22, 2025 at Atrium Health-Cleveland in Shelby.

Jeff was born Thursday, February 13, 1964 in Rutherford County to the late Hubert Davis Lee and Lizzie Watts Lee. Early in his life he worked for Harrill Brothers Wholesale and Smith Wholesale. Later he worked as a manager at the Mt. Vernon Cupboard and for NC Tractor Sales and Repair. Jeff’s lifelong calling was serving as a Minister of the Gospel. He pastored several local churches which included The Little White Country Church, Shingle Hollow Congregational Holiness and most recently Gray’s Chapel in Rutherfordton. Jeff enjoyed fishing, listening to all genres of music, old classic cars and riding motorcycles. His greatest joy and passion was being a husband, dad and grandfather. He loved each one in his family dearly.

In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by a sister, Barbara Lee and brother, Tommy Lee.

Those left to cherish his memory include his loving wife of eleven years, Rebecca Lee; daughters, Paige Lee (Hunter Earley) of Rutherfordton, Brooke Tripoli of Forest City and Jill Lee of Spindale; son, Austin Lee of Boulder, Colorado; brother, Mike McKinney (Don); sisters, Norma Bradley and Dorothy Lee all of Forest City; grandchildren, Karly Lee, Kiley Arrowood, Raven Tripoli, Luca Earley, Serenity Van Meter, Kiala Earley, Nevaeh Van Meter, Asher Van Meter and Aurora Van Meter.

A celebration of Jeff’s life will be conducted at 2:00 pm on Saturday, January 3rd at Gray’s Chapel. The family will greet friends immediately following the service at the church.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be sent to Rebecca Lee, 298 Jones Radiator Road, Forest City, NC 28043 to help defray funeral costs.