Kate Lee

Kate Lee, born Catharine Anna Spooner, (March 9th 1858-July 25th, 1904) was a singer and folksong collector.

She was born in Rufford, Nottinghamshire, the daughter of Lucius and Margaret Spooner; her cousins included William Archibald Spooner, who gave his name to the "spoonerism".

She entered the Royal Academy of Music in January 1876 with the ambition to become a singer; but her studies were at this time not completed and she married Arthur Morier Lee (1847-1909) in December 1877. She had two children, in 1879 and 1881, but retained the desire to become a singer. She studied at the Royal College of Music from 1887 to 1889 and became a professional singer in 1895. She also collected folksongs, notably from James and Thomas Copper. She was one of the leading figures in setting up the Folk-Song Society and became its first secretary. In 1900 however, she became ill with cancer, of which she died at Stubbings near Maidenhead in 1904.

References

*C.J. Bearman, 'Lee, Catharine Anna (1859-1904)', "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography" (Oxford: OUP, 2004, online ed. 2008)