http://naseemrakha.com/2017/11/goodbye-katie-lee/

Sorry, I did not copy the text. At the same time, she sounds like a hell of a person and a beautiful woman.

 

Well that's a high compliment indeed. Intended or not, thanks for filling me in to another's great life lived.

Hush....an alias

 

I would have loved to meet that woman. Fascinating.

 

@shootersa
Being a river man this would be something for you

 

It's sad we become aware too late the treasures of humanity in order to meet them in person, but even still, we
can revel in their love of that which is precious, as well as their fight against the unjust, who wish to destroy it.
A person I think I would have enjoyed knowing.




KATIE LEE'S GRAND CANYON
Katie Lee is known for many things, including her passion for the Grand Canyon. This story, which we included in our May 2016 issue, originally was published in the June 1960 issue of Arizona Highways. We hope you enjoy it.

https://www.arizonahighways.com/traveling-canyons-white-water-highway

 

Shooter sort of met Katie Lee when he floated Glen Canyon in 1969; that was the year that Glen Canyon was actually being buried by the backup of Glen Canyon. The people who floated in August of that year were among the last to see an unflooded Glen Canyon.

He didn't know her well; there were something like 60 of us on that (those) float(s), and Shooter was a novice, little more than a muscle on the end of an oar. He was pretty much ignored, Shooter was, on that trip, but it was amazing, and a trip Shooter cherishes.

He ran across her at a meeting in South Western Colorado debating McFee Reservoir; that hated plug that basically dried up for all time, Shooter's most loved river, the Dolores.
We didn't have much interaction then, she was more enamored of Martin Litton, who was a fire brand she could relate to when it came to fighting the plugging of rivers. Shooter thinks both were married at the time, although younger readers might not understand the significance that carried in the 1970's.

Katie and Georgie White were friends for a bit after the floodgates at Glen Canyon were closed. but then Georgie got a reality check; she realized that her business (Georgie was a pioneer running the Grand Canyon commercially) actually got better with the damn dam than without it.

For Katie, Georgie sold out. For Georgie, Katie was a rabble rousing radical tilting at windmills; anyone who saw the base of Glen Canyon dam being poured understood the futility of talking about getting it removed, lowered, or somehow done away with once the gates were closed.

Although Georgie was infamous for her one piece leopard print suits, her love of Jim Beam, and her studly LA Fireman river guides, she shunned nudity like a Catholic nun. She rarely tolerated excess skin exposure on her trips, causing them to stand out for an unexpected reason, and told Shooter once that Katie Lee was a "publicity seeking exhibitionist with visions of grandeur" (actually, those are Shooters words, Georgie used more colorful and expressive language).

Shooter can't say for sure, he didn't get below Glen Canyon dam and into the Grand Canyon until almost 15 years after the gates were closed, but he suspects Katie is the reason so many people shuck their clothes once they drop a few miles below Lees Ferry. Shooter has often made the observation that no river sees bare butts like the Grand Canyon does. Which is interesting, since the water in the Grand Canyon comes from the bottom of the damn and is a nippily 50 degrees; hardly an incentive to go naked into the fray, as it were. A bitty wave splashing over the bow can raise impressive goose bumps and shrivel otherwise notable wienies in an instant.

RIP Katie Lee, hope to see you inthe Canyon someday.