Elizabeth Lee Woodruff Wood

Lee Wood (Alexandria, VA) was an artist who selflessly shared her talents and her loving spirit with family, friends, and neighbors alike. Humble and self-critical, she neer fully understood or realized how profoundly her life and work inspired aneenriched those around her.?? She was born oneecember 1, 1945 in Pittsburgh, PA and grew up in Greensburg, PA.?? Her fondest childhood memories were of summers spent with her father (John Edward Woodruff) and mother (Jane neely Woodruff) in Cape May, NJ, especially time spent with her father cruising the inland waterways in his little red speed boat.?? She attended grade school at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral School, graduated from St. Xavier High School, and went on to receive degrees from Sullins Jr College (Bristol, VA) and Mt. Mercy College (Pittsburgh, PA).?? Ready to embrace her artistic dreams by pursuing an MFA degree (Michigan State or Uneersity of Pennsylvania) she fell in love with and married Paul Joseph Wood, from Hammond, IN.?? Lee and Paul created a family ??? three children: John (Alexandria, VA), Christopher (Alameda, CA), and Amanda (New York, NY) ??? while Lee refocused her artistic talents on making ???the best??? costumes for her children and their friends, and leading the design aneexecution of event decorations for the Westmoreland Museum of American Art (Greensburg, PA), the Americaneeart Association (Westmoreland County, PA), the Mental Health Association (Westmoreland County, PA), aneexecuted set design for the Laurel Youth Ballet (Greensburg, PA).????Helping her children pursue their interests ??? artistic, sports, and others - often took precedence over expressing her inner artistic vision until - after their departure for College ??? Lee fully re-embraced her creative passion at the Maryland Institute College of Art (Baltimore, MD) followed by studies toward a long-delayed MFA at Queens College (New York, NY).?? Recognition for Lee???s art came from exhibitions, including the International Exhibition of Art (Jilin Province, China), Multiple Personalities (Queens College Klapper Gallery, NY), Diverse Approaches (Parlor Gallery, NY), Autonomous (Art Field, NY), and Tables & Traditions YWCA (Greensburg, PA).????Ill fate intervened after Lee???s first year at Queens College when she learned she had lung cancer.?? After nearly a year of intensive therapy, two major surgeries, and rehabilitation at Duke Uneersity Medical Center, Lee was clear of the cancer and remained so for the next twenty years.?? During that time she pursued her love of travel and reneed her creative work, focusing on portraiture and adding award winning wood carving to her repertoire.?? Tragically, the life-extending radiation therapy she received twenty years earlier caused development of a rare and insidious radiation-induced sarcoma, which took her life on June 24, 2019.?? She is survived by her husband Paul, her children John, Christopher, and Amanda, and their spouses Joshua Samit (Amanda) and Danielle Faber Wood (Christopher). Just weeks before her death she became a first-time Grandmother when twins Theodore Lee and Nevada Jane Samit were born to Amanda and Joshua. We mourneer loss, we cherish the profoundly personal artistic spark she brought to us, and we are better people because of her life.?? Her legacy is her children, her grandchildren, and her art.?? Lee, we love you always and forever.?? Her family is planning a memorial service to be held in Alexandria, VA later this summer.