Lee Hammons

Lee Hammons, who taught hundreds of children to read during a first-grade teaching career that spanned four decades at two Episcopalian schools, died May 24 after a fall at her north Dallas home and subsequent surgery. She was 91.

Born Thelma Leone Knowles in Los Angeles, Lee, as she was always known, moved to Texas in 1962 with her husband, Hal Hammons, who died in 2006. Following an early pre-school teaching position, Lee joined the faculty of St. Michael’s School and continued her first-grade assignment when St. Michael’s and the Episcopal School of Dallas merged in 1995.

Longtime ESD colleague Betsy Edmondson said Lee had a unique ability to get through to 6-year-olds trying to figure out the English language. “She could teach a rock to read,” Edmondson said. “Parents often would say, I don’t know how she does it but it works and my child loves school and can read!”

Another ESD fellow teacher, Connie Elms, said Lee was “the hardest working lady in Texas, the best and most well-rounded teacher anyone could strive to be.”

Lee retired from ESD at age 80 but continued to mentor young teachers there. She also was an enthusiastic volunteer at the Dallas Arboretum.

Funeral services for Lee Hammons will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday, May 29, at The Heights Baptist Church in Richardson, preceded by a general reception in the chapel lobby beginning at 1 p.m. Burial will follow immediately after the service at Sparkman/Hillcrest Cemetery.

Lee is survived by sons Mark of Plano and Greg of Lake Worth, a brother and sister-in-law, Bill Knowles and Sharon Weaver-Knowles of Missoula, Mont., niece Irene Smolsky of Santa Clarita, Calif., and nephews Frank Knowles of Albany, Calif., Dan Knowles of Chicago, Joseph Knowles of Finland, and Ted Knowles of Providence, R.I.