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William Albert LEE

Male 1892 - 1951  (59 years)


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  • Name William Albert LEE 
    Birth 25 Feb 1892  Hallettsville, Lavaca, Texas, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Death 23 Nov 1951  Houston, Harris, Texas, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    • at 8:30 a.m. at his residence, 1561 Kirby Dr.
    Burial 24 Nov 1951  Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery, Houston, Harris, Texas, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    • Section 26, Lot 46, East 1/2, east side grave
    Person ID I13916  von Rosenberg Family Tree
    Last Modified 1 Jun 2011 

    Family Alice Helen JOHNSON,   b. 14 Feb 1889, Galveston, Galveston, Texas, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 17 Oct 1942, Houston, Harris, Texas, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 53 years) 
    Divorce Yes, date unknown 
    Children 
    +1. Mary Alice LEE,   b. 21 Jun 1920, Houston, Harris, Texas, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 2 Jun 1976, La Grange, Fayette, Texas, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 55 years)
    Family ID F9686  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 3 Mar 2014 

  • Notes 
    • Albert’s family moved to Houston after boll weevils had destroyed their cotton farm. Albert first sold newspapers on a street corner and then for a railroad and later formed a produce company with his two brothers. Albert went to the Rio Grande Valley to be the produce buyer for the company but later grew watermelons near Sealy before returning to Houston as a commercial real estate broker, and, later, a hotelman. In 1925 Albert bought a hotel from an owner who was in failing health and had listed the hotel with Lee's brokerage. Albert refurbished and opened the hotel as the Lee Hotel, located at Polk and San Jacinto. Albert controlled nine hotel properties by 1950, including the Walee, Woodrow, Bell, Stratford, Milby and San Jacinto in downtown Houston and the Fort Mason Inn, a resort in the Hill Country.??Albert was appointed to serve on the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles by Governor Coke Stevenson and was active in politics at both the state and local level. He was one of the founders of the Houston Fat Stock Show and was seen as instrumental in the organization presenting star performers in conjunction with the livestock exhibits in the early 1940s.??In early 1946 he decided to enter the radio business, partnering with Julian Weslow, a friend and attorney. He filed an application for a station to operate full-time on 610 kilocycles with 5000 watts, choosing KLEE as the call letters. Despite competition from the nephew of Sam Rayburn, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the permit was awarded to Albert in May, 1947. He was exposed to television in New York while negotiating with talent to appear at the Houston rodeo. He returned and filed an application for a station on channel 2 in the autumn of 1947. He won approval three months later. Albert sold his TV station a year and a half before his death. The call letters of the radio station were changed to KLBS by the station’s new owners and later became KILT.