Mrs. Mollie Lee Llerena

MOLLIE LEE LLERENA

Mollie Lee Llerena died on October 10, 2009, just short of her 86th birthday, and is survived by her husband of sixty-four years, Edward David Llerena. They visited Vero Beach in 1972 and loved it; bought a home in 1974 and moved to Vero permanently in 1981. A wise decision!

Mollie Lee was born on December 21, 1923 in Brooklyn, New York and was the daughter of Rear Admiral Robert Corwin Lee (USNA ’10). In WWII he became the Navy’s representative to General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s SHAEF Command in Europe. Later, he returned to civilian life and was the executive VP and then Chairman of the Board of Moore-McCormack Steamship Lines, with vessels to South America, to Africa and to the Soviet Union and neighboring countries. She was also the granddaughter of the Honorable William A. Lee, a judge in the Supreme Court in the state of Idaho.

Mollie’s mother, Elsie Frances Calder Lee, was the daughter of US Senator William Musgrave Calder (Rep-NY), father in the Senate of the present Daylight Savings law, at that time an important decision involving having more daylight hours to produce weaponry for our involvement in WWII. Calder was also asked to run as Warren Harding’s VP but turned the offer down. This refusal opened the door for Grover Cleveland to become VP and, later, president of our country, when President Harding died in office. Elsie Calder Lee christened the battleship USS New York and later became national president of the Navy Sponsors Society, limited in membership to those ladies christening US fighting ships.

In Vero Beach, Mollie was a member of the Junior League, of the Riomar Country Club, of the Vero Beach Yacht Club and of what had been the Riomar Bay Yacht Club. She was an excellent bridge player and an avid golfer in her earlier days, but too embarrassed to disclose her horrendous handicap. Having lived overseas for much of two decades - Panama, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil –she had also been a member of many other clubs and associations.

Mollie was graduated from Brooklyn’s Packer Collegiate Institute, as were her mother and grandmother. Her great gift was having a love of life, for people, for her family, for dogs, for her church, for just about everything.

As an early teenager she decided to show her beloved boxer Bella at the Westminster Kennel Club in the Madison Square Garden, and won a small prize. Encouraged, she ended up with a total of fifteen Great Danes and St. Bernard dogs. Years later in Washington DC, she became a Humane Society volunteer at the National Airport. Her task was to handle animals leaving or arriving. Conditions were disastrous: Cages stacked and thrown around, animals left in the sun with no food or water, animals dead on arrival. Mollie Lee protested; the Humane Society listened; congressional meetings were held; Mollie spoke at two of these. Result: Some improvement but, alas, less than hoped.

She also had a heart for young women in crisis. For several years she worked on a telephone hotline for troubled young women and mothers who needed support and direction in their lives. She would offer a listening ear and guide them to available resources for help.

Mollie Lee christened the Maritime Building at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Years later, and while living in Mexico City, she was the only woman member of the Board when Prince Phillip of England came to christen the new American-British Cowdray Hospital.

Mollie Lee had a heart for charity. An American nun had been given permission to visit her ailing mother who lived in an extremely poor area of Mexico City. While there, a baby girl was thrown over the wall into their property.
Sister Keller kept the baby. Soon, as word got around, many little girl babies were left at her doorstep. The US church gave her permission to remain in Mexico to care for them, but she had no funds. This is when Mollie stepped in to help with a fundraiser at her home ---a cocktail party, a sit-down dinner for one hundred, followed by twenty-five tables of bridge. And this is how an American nun started Mexico City’s only orphanage at that time for girls. Mollie was later told that the caterers, who were quite poor themselves, were so impressed that an American lady would help their own poor that they donated their pay for the night to the cause.

Mollie’s most memorable fun experience was being chosen Queen Shenandoah XVIII over the annual 2-day spring apple blossom festival at Winchester, VA. Banners in town read “A Lee Returns to Virginia” in recognition of her connection to Richard Henry Lee, grandfather of Robert E. Lee. Arriving by train in Washington, she was taken to the White House for a brief but personal meeting and then had police motorcycles escort her to Winchester. At one of the balls Benny Goodman played the song “I Can’t Believe Your Eyes”, for which she had written the lyrics and which for a time became Isham Jones’ theme song and was regularly used in his midnight broadcasts from New York’s McAlpin Hotel. It was a dream-world occasion for a young girl.

Mollie is survived by her loving and caring husband Edward; daughter Nancy Kraft (and her husband Charles) of Nashville, TN; son Dr. Richard Lee Llerena (and his wife Dr. Lynette Llerena) of Englewood, FL; son Ted and his wife Ellen of Vero Beach had both passed on earlier in the year. Brother Robert Corwin Lee (and wife Gaye) of Springfield, MO. Grandchildren: Adriane Kraft (Jay) Guerra of El Paso, TX with four girls (Kathryn, Evalise, Mia, Giana plus another daughter en route); Travis (Stephanie) Kraft of Nashville, TN with Edward and a daughter en route. Daphne Kraft (Brad) Bennett of Houston, TX with two girls (Rowan and Ava). Arianne Llerena of McClean, VA and Richard Lee Llerena of Englewood, FL.

Services: 1:00 PM Saturday, October 31, 2009 at the Anglican Christ Church of VB, Majestic

Theatre Plaza, 925 14th Lane.

Memorial contributions may be made in memory of Mollie to the Humane Society of Vero Beach, PO Box 644, Vero Beach, FL 32961 or to Christ Church VB, the Anglican church at 925 14th Lane, Vero Beach, FL32960.

Arrangements are under the direction of Strunk Funeral Homes and Crematory, Vero Beach, FL