We need more Flora Lees in this world.
When news spread Thursday night about her death, you could sense the numbness across Sioux City – this can’t be true, can it?
Folks at the “Are You Smarter than Our Fourth Graders?” fundraiser at North High School that evening were convinced it was a mistake. “Didn’t we just see her at an event last week?” one said. “Shouldn’t she be here tonight?”
And, that was Flora – always supportive, always involved, always present.
While it would be easy to list her biographical accomplishments – first Black woman on the Sioux City Board of Education, past president of the NAACP, Women Aware executive director – what really mattered was the way she treated others. “I understand what you’re saying,” she’d say at a meeting, “but I disagree with you.”
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She was honest, but polite.
She was firm, but loving.
She was a leader, but also a worker.
Like her husband, Rudy, Flora wanted a better Sioux City, a better Siouxland. The Lees’ tireless work is remembered with their names on a project at the Martin Luther King Jr. Transportation Center – a nice honor that suggested they could be everywhere and still be home.
Their desire to lift up others was evident wherever they went. Before Flora even spoke, she greeted you with a smile and, then, a hug.
She supported the arts. She loved athletics. She embraced education.
That she served on the school board is only fitting. She helped the district out of a financial crisis and led the charge to repair and replace the city’s schools. A local-option sales tax was successful because she was able to reach people throughout the community and explain how important the tax was.
Former Superintendent Larry Williams called her a “good listener and a keen judge of needs and human character. She was always prepared on issues.”
Today, we see people who speak without thinking, act without weighing the consequences.
Flora did her homework. She didn’t make uninformed decisions. She had the evidence needed to support her views.
Today, when we see politicians spout the party line, badmouth colleagues and act without thinking, we wonder what prompted their behavior.
Flora wasn’t one to shoot from the hip. She carefully considered her words – and they meant something.
In her honor, it would be great if others pledged to be more like her. Flora Lee set a standard we would be wise to emulate.