Lois Lee Ramsey

Lois Lee Ramsey, 84, died on March 27, from complications of multiple sclerosis, at Eden Acres Care Center of Perry Lutheran Homes. She was born November 30, 1940, in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, the daughter of Captain Linus E. “Bud” Huck and Mayor Ann Alice Foster Huck.

Lois Lee graduated from Illmo-Fornfelt High School, then earned a BS at Southeast Missouri State College, MS and PhD at Tulane University, and a postdoctoral research fellowship at Albert Einstein Research Institute in Philadelphia. She was a popular teacher of ecology, comparative anatomy, and animal behavior at St. Mary's College of Maryland and Tuskegee Institute until diagnosed with MS 53 years ago. 

She married her graduate school sweetheart, John S. Ramsey, and they settled in Auburn, Alabama. Later, they worked at Iowa State University in Ames, Colorado State in Ft. Collins, Colorado, then retired to her beloved hometown of Commerce in Southeast Missouri, where they built their dream house on a ridge top overlooking the Mississippi River. She and John were married for 55 years. They both became seriously handicapped and were invited to join their children in Iowa.

Lois Lee was a member of St. Paul United Methodist Church in Commerce, where she taught children’s Sunday School classes for twenty years. She was beloved by everyone who met her, and was the kindest and most helpful person imaginable.

In addition to her parents, she was predeceased by three brothers-in-law and two sisters-in-law. Surviving in addition to her husband are son John M. Ramsey (Leslie Dvorak) of Papillion, Nebraska, daughter Flora A. Ramsey-Khosravi (Sasha) of Grimes, Iowa, brother Linus F. Huck of Fruitland, Missouri, sister George Ann Huck (Gabriel Ramirez) of Merida, Mexico, and four grandchildren.

A memorial service will be scheduled at St. Paul United Methodist Church, Commerce, Missouri. Lois is now free of wheelchairs and walkers, she again can stroll freely with her favorite cardinals, hummingbirds, and butterflies by the woods, the river, her homeplaces.