“Work hard,” advised Floyce Lee. “You have to work hard, and you can’t give up. If you’re going to have anything, you have to work hard.”
Floyce Lee has always been a hard worker. She was the youngest of seven kids in her family and was able to make some great memories growing up. While life growing up was different for her, she wouldn’t trade those times for anything.
“We didn’t have too much to do because we didn’t have cell phones and stuff like that. We just had to get out and play with what we had,” Floyce remembered. “Life was a lot different from the way it is now, but I wouldn’t change it for anything. Families enjoyed each other more then. We had puzzles, played hopscotch, and just played games. I liked to go skating. We did go skating back in my day. We’d have parties at each other’s’ houses. We’d have fun parties—not drinking parties—just fun parties.”
She attended multiple schools when she was growing up before eventually finishing up at Quitman.
“I went to several different schools,” recalled Floyce. “I started in Quitman in the first grade, and then in the second grade I went to DeSoto. Then, in third grade, my mama moved to Alabama so I went to Alabama. In the fourth grade, I went to Hopewell. Then in fifth grade, I went back to Quitman. In sixth grade, I started out in Meehan and ended up in Enterprise. In eighth grade, I started at Quitman and finished at Quitman.”
It didn’t take long for her to find and marry the love of her life, William Lee.
“We lived in one place, and Daddy lived just up here,” Floyce reminisced. “We had to walk to school every day before Mr. Nichols could start bringing us home every day. We would have to walk from the main road up to here, and Daddy would be home on leave. I got to looking at him. His cousins were already my sisters-in-law. I just got to talking to him down the line someway, and I captured him.”
Since he was already on active duty in the Navy when they met, she moved to different stations with him once they were married in 1962.
“He was in the Navy when I met him, and we went to Butler, Alabama, and got married,” remembered Floyce. “We came back home, and he got orders to Norfolk in June, so that’s where we went for three months. Then, he got orders again and had to go out on the ship. I think he had to go out to the Thetis Bay. He was there when I had Kim. Kim was already seven months old before he got to see her. He came home when my daddy died in July before Kim was born and went back, but he didn’t get to come back home because they had the Cuban Missile Crisis going on. When he did come back home, we got stationed in Maryland. We stayed there two years. Then we came back home, but I didn’t get to go with Daddy anymore because he was always on the ships. At the very last, he was finally stationed in Pensacola, but he would get to come home on weekends. Finally he got orders somewhere else, and another guy got orders to Meridian. They got to trade orders, so Daddy got to work in Meridian and was able to come home every night. I was glad because he could help me with the kids.”
Floyce had already had all six of their children before she returned to school to continue her education and eventually take on two jobs that she enjoyed.
“I graduated from LPN school in August 1976 and went to work at Anderson’s in September 1976. I was an OB Tech with Labor and Delivery,” explained Floyce. “I stayed up there until 1988 when I came home to take care of my mama because she got sick. Daddy would drive an Enterprise school bus every morning, and I would drive it every evening. I drove for 10 years. I worked at night at Anderson’s, so I would drive the bus in the evening and then go to work at Anderson’s that night.”
Once she stopped working to take care of her mom, Floyce stayed home and just enjoyed her constantly growing family.
“I enjoy my grandkids,” expressed Floyce. “They say kids are great, but you’re grandkids are the best. I love my grandkids, but I love my great grandkids even more.”
Now, she enjoys each day that passes and each time she is able to spend with her large family. She taught her children the value of hard work and does her best to teach her grandchildren the same thing.
If you would like to nominate someone for Person of the Week, contact Brittney Mangum at 601-776-3726.
