Lex Luther                           

(Author's note: Take the time to meet one of my family's superheroes.)

As always, unapologetically unedited.

Most of the time, you don't even see them. They're just names, a seemingly endless scroll on a pedigree or descendants chart. Maybe a few stand out: an odd birth date, a death simply marked with a dash, or "unknown." It's not your fault you can't see "them." There are simply too many.

For the most part, it's a random kind of kismet. You might feel compelled to stop and look at one name in particular, but you don't really know why. After all, they're just people who lived and loved a long time ago. "What the heck does it really matter?" you might ask yourself. You've recorded their vitals as best you could and moved on.

Sometimes, though, one of them calls you in. It's not like a ghost or an apparition, but more like an echo within yourself. You wonder if a part of them isn't in you, somewhere, even still.

I guess that's how I "met" Luther.

  

Above: Birth record for Luther Harrison Lee

I've written about Luther Harrison Lee before, or as I like to call him for this post, "Lex Luther." Perhaps it's because I like the reverse alliteration to Superman's villain, and maybe because "LEX" is my own "Latin-esque" term for the law. You see, "my" Luther, much like Superman's Lex 'Luthor,' had issues with the law. The law considered Luther a villain of sorts, and, well, I'm not entirely convinced they (the law) were right. I think this Lex Luther was just a lost and sad soul among the branches of my family tree, a lost soul in a day and age when there wasn't much understanding or sympathy for people like him.

You see, Luther was an epileptic.

Born on November 3, 1887, in Saginaw County, Michigan, Luther Harrison Lee is my first cousin, three times removed. He was my great-grandfather, Burton Lee's first cousin — a fact I doubt my great-grandfather ever knew, or if he did, paid any attention to. (Burton's father, John, and Luther's father, Lyons, were brothers) Luther migrated with his branch of my Northern Lee kinfolk from Michigan to Washington State sometime before 1910.  As far as branches of my Northern Lee family coming out west, this branch can be considered somewhat of a late arrival. Once he got here, that is to Washington State, census records show Luther worked as a logger and at some form of self or family farming - the records are unclear.                             

Above: The family of Lyons and Catherine Lee

For the most part, you wouldn't know that there was anything unusual about Luther, or that there was any sort of a problem with his life. While family photos aren't always flattering, and while Luther's sister looks much like a child vampire and the babies in the picture a demons, very few of us will ever grace the pages of Harper's Bazaar or Vogue. No, the first glimpse you see that anything was going on with him or with his family is when he completed his World War I Draft Card. It's here that the nature of his disability is very much spelled out.       

                          

Above: WWI Draft card and a believed to be image of Luther Harrison Lee

I think something must have changed here, that is right about this time. (Say 1920ish)  I'm only guessing, but I think his seizures must have been getting worse. 

While Luther never seems to have left home, that is, he is shown as living with his parents in census records from 1880 through 1940, there is certainly mention of him in the local papers. I guess "Lex Luther" started having some minor run-ins with the law. This is a curious thing to me, though. For the most part, he is simply mentioned as "frightening" someone. Yeah, when you don't understand a disability, it is often "frightening." Sometimes he is referred to as having appeared insane or crazy. As I read these accounts of him in the older newspapers, I have to wonder what the truth behind all these allegations was.

I think the truth is that Luther was just severely disabled. 

        

                          

Sometime in the 1930s, things seemed to spiral a bit for Luther Lee. He begins to have more of these run-ins with the law. They aren't terrible, and law enforcement seems to treat him fairly well, given the climate of the day. Still, the labels are a bit rough.                       

 And then something really bad happened to Luther. His parents died.

Now, up until this time, Luther was shielded in a lot of ways. However, the march of time protects no one, and Lyons and Catherine Hege Lee simply grew old. By 1945, both of Luther's parents were deceased. I doubt Luther's brother and sisters were interested in caring for their disabled brother, who may have also had some erratic behavior not on par with post-WWII social mores.

I'm hopeful that he wasn't lobotomized. I just can't be sure.

Now I had always thought (likely because I didn't look far enough or close enough at the records) that Luther, realizing his disability, simply fled to the mountains. I thought this because his death certificate read that he died in a rural area of Washington State near a city called Sedro-Wooley." Well, stupid me, I didn't look any further. I saw only the words "rural" and a hyphenated city/town name in a rural area. It made more "sense to my sensibilities" that Luther would have fled to the mountains and died a quiet, lonely (yet somehow noble) death. It was only after I came back to revisit Luther this last time that I understood.

Yeah, that was not the case.

The big reveal was on Luther's death certificate - you know the one I hadn't paid very close attention to and made assumptions from, yeah, that one.     

But there it was - the "Northern State Hospital." Hmmmm....? So I think to myself, well, at least Luther didn't die alone via a seizure in a cabin in the woods. And then I looked up just what and where the Northern State Hospital was - or rather is.

Now I'm not gonna go on about "medical treatments of the day" or mention that Luther's brother and sister probably did the best they could for Luther, or even mention that the Northern State Hospital is considered one of Washington State's most haunted places. (I mean, what state hospital isn't haunted???) Nah, I'm not gonna go there.    

https://usghostadventures.com/haunted-places/americas-most-haunted-hospitals-and-asylums/northern-state-mental-hospital/

You see, my point in all of this was to get to know Luther. I wanted to see what his life was, good, or bad, sick, or well. I have wanted to put flesh on the bones, as they say. If I happen to draw a parallel between mental illness, epilepsy, and the uncomfortable truths behind them in the past, then If Luther's ghost walks the abandoned hospital hallways I say more power to you, cousin. 

I guess I like to think that cousin"Lex Luther" is somewhere cheering me on with a big, "You go, Cousin Jeff! You tell them who I was - that I was more than just what they read in the papers or the man who lived the last years of his life in a mental hospital."   

              

Yes, Luther Lee, who lived in a mental hospital all likely because he was simply epileptic.

Now I don't know that for sure. Maybe Luther was easily angered and one scary f*ck that nobody except maybe his mama could control. But for some reason, I don't think so. Mom and Dad always brought Luther home until they couldn't anymore. No doubt it wasn't easy. No doubt it was damn hard. Yet they did it. They took care of their son. I have to say, too, that someone came to "collect Luther" after he passed away. He is buried in the family plot in Oak Harbor alongside his parents and siblings.

Yeah, that's just what we do.

There isn't a lot more to say about Luther. I will check back in on him again from time to time to see if the Great Algorithms will shed any new light on just who he was. I feel like I owe it to him. I don't like the idea of Luther or his life getting swept under the rug just because he was disabled, or just because he was maybe a wee bit crazy.

After all, aren't we all?

RIP - "Lex Luther," you will always be a superhero in my family.

       ☮