Maggie Lee Ripa passed away this past Tuesday, March 26, at 11:25 AM. She died peacefully in her home, attended by her daughter Terry, guardian Hilda Hughes and family. She was 90 years old. Lee was preceded in death by her sister Mary Lossen, of Leland. A memorial visitation will be held at 1:00 p.m. with service at 1:30 p.m., April 2, 2013 at Cape Fear Christian Church, 811 N. College Rd (Spring View and King's Grant area, southbound lane across the street from the King's Grant Exxon), Wilmington. Graveside is at 3:00 pm at Oleander Memorial Gardens at Bradley Creek (end of Bradley Drive). In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in Lee's name to the charity of one's choice.

The name "Lee Ripa" will be familiar to all the many Wilmingtonians who have seen and purchased her paintings for the last 50 years, and the hundreds of art shows she attended. Lee was an accomplished watercolorist whose subject was the North Carolina scene. She began her art education in the 1960s under Virginia McQueen and Hester Donnelly. She went on to study watercolors with John Pike in Woodstock, New York, Claude Croney in Vermont, and Ferdinand Petrie in Rockport Massachusetts. She continued her studies with Alex Powers, Zoltan Szabo and locally, with Claude Howell. Her art brought her many awards, among them the Azalea Festival, the Riverfront Festival, the Fourth of July festival, the Kinston Art Show, the Onslow Art Show, and many others. Her paintings hang in such collections as the Federal Paper Company, First Citizens Bank, Wilmington Board of Realtors, and many doctors and lawyers offices, most of which were purchase awards. There are estimated to be hundreds of Lee Ripa's prints throughout Wilmington and the entire United States. Many of these depict the landmark Lumina Pavilion which she knew well from her own gay youth dancing in the Lumina Ballroom during the height of Big Band era during the 1930s - 40s.

Maggie Lee Godwin was born on July 25, 1922 in Hertford County, NC to the tobacco farming family of Joseph Raleigh Godwin and Katie Leggett Godwin. Soon after their daughter was born the pair divorced and her mother took her to Wilmington with her sister Mary. It was the height of the Great Depression; they were extremely poor and moved from house to house, unable to pay the rent. Maggie often went to school in broken shoes.

Maggie graduated New Hanover High School in 1940, where she pursued a love of poetry. The shy, small town girl who wrote sonnets to forget her poverty woke up one day and discovered she was considered to be exceptionally beautiful. She entered local beauty pageants and won them. She took a bus to New York City and worked nights as a hat check girl at the famous "Stork Club", which was frequented by movie stars and Manhattan's elite. Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, the Ink Spots and other big name entertainers dined and performed there. She was spotted by a modeling agency and went to work posing for magazine ads. She sent the money she made to her forever destitute mother Katie. Though named after the novel "Maggie Lee", a book that was very popular in the early 20th century, young Maggie hated the name, considering it awkward and ugly for this new life as a model she was pursuing. Dropping "Maggie" she became known simply as "Lee".

Lee missed her hometown and frequently returned to Wilmington while continuing to take modeling jobs in New York. In Wilmington, she took a job as a ticket girl at the Bijou theatre, and the Bailey theatre, both on Front Street. She worked as a secretary for the Atlantic Coastline Railroad office downtown, then a major railroad hub. By now her images were appearing in fashion magazines in New York, and she was frequently on the cover of Life Around Wilmington. The dirt-poor young girl who wore broken shoes and hated her name had grown up into something more than just beautiful; she had become one of the most striking-looking women North Carolina has ever produced. The old people will tell you that whenever Lee Godwin walked into a room everyone just stopped talking - she had the kind of beauty that silenced rooms and stole hearts.

One heart stolen was that of Lawrence Ripa, a young marine from Brooklyn, New York stationed at Camp Lejeune. During the Azalea Festival Parade of 1947, "Larry" saw the most gorgeous girl he had ever seen, riding on one of the floats - a woman whose splendor paled that year's queen. The young marine got to meet his dream eventually - at the USO Club (now the Hannah Block Community Arts Center) where Lee was serving as a hostess. After five years of chasing his dream to no avail, he finally obtained her hand in marriage and they were wedded in 1952. Through Lee's patient support, encouragement and thriftiness, Larry became a successful businessman, realtor, builder and developer. After 5 years of marriage they produced a son, Dean. Dean became the founder and owner of Wilmington's famous "snake-museum", the Cape Fear Serpentarium. Lee was a brave woman, and Dean credits her with catching his first snake for him when he was four years old. Never able to resist the whims of her son, Lee deftly scooped up the snake - an animal of not inconsiderable size that was making a determined effort to bite her - into a wicker basket, which she covered over with a board to prevent it escaping. "The trouble started right there with mom," jokes Dean. "This Serpentarium is because of her." Lee gave Dean his first painting lessons when he was a little boy and this led to his studying art in Florence, Italy, as a young man. He later returned to Wilmington and produced award winning paintings of his own, some of which are now in the collection of author William S. Burroughs. Lee instilled in her little boy a love of old romantic songs, which she was forever singing while they were riding in the car. This led to his second incarnation as a big band singer, fronting the world famous Tommy Dorsey Orchestra on tour during the years 2003-05, directed by jazz great Buddy Morrow. Whatever Lee touched in her son seemed to spring to life. In 1961 Lee gave birth to a daughter, Terry Lee, who became a beauty in her own right. Terry graduated UNC-W with a degree in social work and later produced two grandchildren for Lee: Carly and Noah. Both of them favor their grandmother and were the light of Lee's life. Terry is married to Steve Hunnicutt, a sought-after Wilmington draftsman and musician. Lee has a great grandchild in Scottie Mae Drybrough, age 4. Her nieces and nephews included Signe Lossen Blanton, Al and Tommy Lossen, and the late Katie Lossen Osborne. Lee had a lifelong faithfulness to Calvary Baptist Church, and was always sharing her faith in God with anyone who would listen.

For all her art endeavors, Lee considered her two children to be her greatest masterpieces. After her divorce from Lawrence Ripa in 1980, she felt they were all she had. She was 58 years old and alone. These sad years inaugurated her most creative period as an artist, pouring all her ferocious life-energies into the production of better and better watercolors. Continuously worried about her son on his long trips collecting venomous snakes overseas, and next helping to raise Terry's daughter, Carly, this graceful, charming but shy and retiring woman gradually grew old. No one seemed to notice it, for somehow she always managed to look 20 years younger than she was.

But then one day she was old, undeniably old. Just as she had become unexpectedly beautiful, her age crept cruelly up on her, and she grew feeble as though overnight. Afflicted with the many illnesses that plague the elderly, at 86 she could hardly get around, and for the last two years was mostly bedridden. The family expresses their undying gratitude to Hilda Hughes and her wonderful family who kept Lee alive through this difficult period, patiently feeding her and bathing her and trying to keep her smiling. Special thanks to Calvary Baptist Church, Cape Fear Christian Church, Hospice, Dr. Mary Rudyk, Senior Health Center and all Lee's many Hispanic friends who came to visit her in her last years.

It is not possible to express the love and admiration felt for this woman by her two children, family and friends, or what an inspiration Lee was to all who knew her. 90 years may seem a long time for a person to live, but how much longer the years we must yet endure, fated to go on living in a world that will never more be the same without her! Till we meet again.

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Quinn-McGowen Funeral Home, Bradley Creek Chapel1:00 PM, Tuesday, April 2, 2013 at Cape Fear Christian Church. Graveside will be 3:00 PM, Tuesday, April 2, 2013 at Oleander Memorial Gardens.