Marjorie Tracy Lee

Marjorie Tracy Lee passed away on January 8, 2026, and having enjoyed the Christmas holidays with family and friends. Marjorie (Marge) Tracy was born on September 16, 1929, in San Fransico to Grover and Gertrude Tracy, joining her older sister, Madeline (who preceded her in death in 2002). Marge leaves behind her loving children, daughter Tracy Crittenberger (Bill) and son Rob Lee (Kelly); eight devoted grandchildren and two great-granddaughters. She married Robert E. Lee IV in 1956. The marriage ended in divorce 20 years later, but they remained friends until Bob's death in 2020.

A native and lifetime resident of San Francisco until the age of forty she loved her city and the times spent with her husband and friends at Trader Vic's, Stinson Beach, cheering on the 49ers or the Giants. In 1970 the family moved to McLean, VA where she adjusted to life in the suburbs, supporting her children in all their activities, continuing to be a superb mother. In 1982 Marge moved to Washington, DC where she worked at Washington Inc. until 1985. At Washington Inc. she made some of the most important friendships of her life. From 1985 – 1990 she was the executive assistant to Meg Greenfield, editorial page editor of The Washington Post, which was challenging and rewarding. In 1990 she became a realtor, joining District Maryland which became W.C. & A.N. Miller. From 2017 until retiring in 2022, she worked with her daughter-in-law at Finnell Lee Homes, which she loved.

Ever the active volunteer, at Children's Hospital in San Francisco, the Meridan House Benefit and was active with the Evergreen Garden Club of Washington, DC and the Sulgrave Club. Her real passion was the Washington Home. She was dedicated to the Home and its mission and was proud to be a Board member and volunteer.

Marge enjoyed bridge, the strategy as well as camaraderie. Her apartment building bridge group was active and a source of immense joy. Needlepoint was something she had done over her lifetime, and each grandchild cherishes their personalized exquisite Christmas stocking.

Marge was the ultimate connector. When Marge was a friend of yours, of which there were countless many, she was a friend through and through, and for life. Seeing things from the "glass half full" perspective and living life joyfully and with inimitable zeal was a major superpower of Marge's, an approach that made all the difference in building and cultivating relationships of real depth and abiding meaning to the legions of people fortunate enough to have known her and to be known by her.

About Marge, whom her grandkids adoringly called "Nana" (a sobriquet marked by such affection that many others over the past few decades additionally have adopted it in referencing her), they note through their vast reservoir of love that, no matter what, she always was at every event or happening, whether graduations, holidays, and weddings or all the sporting events, musicals, Birthday dinners, crack of dawn Christmas mornings, first visitor in the hospital to see her great-granddaughter, if it mattered to her grandchildren she was there.

A related superpower cited about their precious Nana was in her uncanny and always deftly delivered ability to be all three of the following--friend, mentor, and role model--at the same time, doing so with grace and care, and always maximally coated in love; the grandkids recounting that you could be belly-laughing with Nana and so glad that she was around at the same time that gently she would remind you about how to conduct yourself around others, while also dropping extraordinarily valuable wisdom and perspective on topics ranging from relevant to interesting to simply day-to-day. Nana taught the eight of them so much about how to live a life full of love. That all of us will miss Marge Lee terribly is an understatement, but it is through and because of her and her remarkable example that each of us simply is a better person, knowing, as we do and as modeled every moment of every day by our dear, sweet Queen, that love conquers all.

A funeral Mass celebrating Marge's life is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. on Friday, January 23, at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown, followed by a reception at the Chevy Chase Club. Contributions in Marge's memory can be made to:

The Markets Institute World Wildlife Fund
Marjorie T. Lee Memorial Fund

or

Medstar National Rehabilitation Hospital
https://giving.medstarhealth.org/medstarhealth/get-involved/donate/Lee