On Thursday, August 20, 2020, Amy and Stanford S. Lee will celebrate their 65th wedding anniversary.
Stanford Lee was born and raised in Hanford, California. Amy was born in Fresno, where they met in 1955. Later that same year, they married at the Church of The Wayfarer in Carmel, California.
Stan served in the Air Force during the Korean War. Upon his discharge, he completed his education under the G.I. Bill.
Stanford and his four brothers served their country in the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Army. His brother, Harold, paid the ultimate price at the Normandy invasion during World War II. He was 18 years old.
It was crucial to Stan that family and friends remember Harold.
“It took one year to the month to have an army display put together for him,” said Stan. In the course of that event, Stan met President Clinton in the Oval Office on October 25, 1999.
“I was able to start my business in Clovis on February 1, 1958,” he says. “I joined the Clovis Chamber of Commerce for 40 years. My business (Stan’s T.V. and Radio) lasted for 40 years from 1958 to 1998.
“Before I retired from my business in 1998, the City of Clovis had a project that a business person can have a bench installed. Amy’s sister, Gwendolyn, said that we should do it. That year we did not … but waited a year. The cost was $100.00 less, and we bought our bench in 1999. The bench is in front of the store where my first year of business was started.”
“My first year of business was at 512 Pollasky, and there was a walk-in vault. I worked in the back room. My business grew, and we moved to 606 Pollasky Ave…then to a small empty former grocery store at 330 Bullard Ave. across from where the State Farm building is. We were there for five years.”
The final location for the business was a building the Lees built on a lot that they owned on Woodworth Avenue.
“I was there for my last 24 years before retiring,” says Stan. “I received an unexpected invitation to be listed in The National Registry of Who’s Who.” Amy and Stan can be found on page 324 of the 1999 issue of the book.
When she first met her husband-to-be, in January 1955, Amy was working for her parents at The Far East Cafe on North Fresno and McKinley Streets. Amy is a bookkeeper and worked at several jobs, including the family business, Duncan Ceramic Company, and a local CPA. A favorite pastime is crocheting.
“Amy and I believe that our long marriage is due to having Jesus Christ in our lives,” says Stan. “We had a son and a daughter. Our daughter is still living, and our son passed away in 2012. We have three grandsons and a granddaughter.”