Bill Lee Siblings: Meet Consuela Lee

Bill Lee had a sister named Consuela Lee. He was an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, music theory professor and the founder of the Springtree/Snow Hill Institute for the Performing Arts. She fought to establish an art school in rural Alabama, Moribund Academy.

Lee graduated from the Snow Hill Institute in 1944 and attended Fisk University for her undergraduate degree and Northwestern University for her master’s degree in music theory and composition.

In 1979, she returned to Snow Hill Alabama to reopen her grandfather’s school as a performing arts centre with after-school and summer programs for students, which ran until 2003. She was the assistant music supervisor and wrote a song for the 1988 movie, School Daze.

In 1992, Consuela was inducted into the Alabam Jazz Hall of Fame.