Katie Lee (1919–2017) was a vibrant and influential figure whose connection to Sedona, Arizona, weaves a rich thread through the tapestry of the region’s modern history. Born Kathryn Louise Lee on October 23, 1919, in Aledo, Illinois, she moved to Tucson, Arizona, as an infant, where she grew up immersed in the desert landscapes that would later define her life’s passions. Though not a Sedona native, her time in the red rock country during the late 1960s and early 1970s marked a pivotal chapter in her remarkable journey as a folk singer, actress, writer, river runner, and environmental activist.
Lee’s path to Sedona began after a colorful career that took her from Arizona to Hollywood and beyond. After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in drama from the University of Arizona in 1943, she ventured to California in 1948, where she acted in radio and television, sang in lounges, and toured the country with folk legend Burl Ives. Her musical talents blossomed, leading to nine albums, including Folk Songs and Poems of the Colorado River (1964) and Ten Thousand Goddam Cattle (1976), which celebrated the American West’s cowboy heritage. But it was her deep love for the Southwest’s wild places—ignited by her first Colorado River trip through the Grand Canyon in 1953—that truly shaped her destiny.
By 1969, Lee had grown weary of the urban sprawl encroaching on her beloved landscapes. She fled Aspen, Colorado, where development was overtaking the wilderness, and settled in Sedona, drawn by its stunning red rock formations and serene isolation. At the time, Sedona was still a small, unincorporated community, its population hovering around a few thousand, with a reputation as a haven for artists and free spirits. Lee lived there until 1971, finding inspiration in the rugged beauty of Oak Creek Canyon and the surrounding Coconino National Forest. During her Sedona years, she continued to perform folk music and nurture her growing environmental consciousness, particularly her fierce opposition to the Glen Canyon Dam, which had flooded her cherished Glen Canyon under Lake Powell in the early 1960s.
Sedona served as a temporary refuge for Lee, a place where she could recharge amid the natural splendor that fueled her art and activism. Her time there coincided with the town’s gradual transformation from a quiet retreat into a burgeoning tourist destination, a shift she observed with a mix of appreciation and unease. In 1971, restless and disillusioned by the arrival of “feather-headed” New Agers and retirees, she moved to Jerome, Arizona, a quirky mining town where she would spend the rest of her life. Yet her Sedona interlude left an indelible mark on her legacy, linking her to the region’s cultural and environmental narrative.
Lee’s connection to Sedona is perhaps most poignantly tied to her advocacy for the natural world. Her experiences in Glen Canyon—where she ran rivers, swam naked in its waters, and named its side canyons alongside pioneers like Tad Nichols and Frank Wright—echoed the untouched beauty she found in Sedona’s red rocks. She channeled this passion into her writing, including Glen Canyon Betrayed (originally All My Rivers Are Gone, 1998), a lyrical lament for the lost canyon, and into her music, which often mourned the damming of the Colorado River. In Sedona, she was part of a growing community of artists and dreamers, contributing to its reputation as a place where creativity and nature intertwined.
Though she left Sedona after just a few years, Katie Lee’s spirit resonates with the town’s history as a crossroads of rugged individualism and artistic expression. Her legacy as the “Grand Dame of Dam Busting” endured until her death on November 1, 2017, at age 98, in Jerome. Today, her archives at Northern Arizona University’s Cline Library preserve her voice—a blend of grit, grace, and unrelenting love for the Southwest’s wild heart—forever tying her to the red rock country she once called home, including the Sedona she knew before it became the bustling destination it is today.