by Dr. Robert Reising

If there is ever a search for the word that best describes Louis Lee, “grateful” may well prove to be the popular choice. 

The nationally respected golfer’s words and actions are quick to communicate that life has brought him contentment and fulfillment, that it has treated him generously and justly. 

His belief is most enthusiastically apparent when he discusses Cleburne County, especially Heber Springs, its county seat and the city of his birth. The latter, he terms “a slice of Americana . . . the way America was intended to be.” There is not “a better place to live,” he confidently proclaims.

For him, too, Heber Springs was perfect for developing his bent for athletics. By the spring of 1974 and graduation from Heber Springs High, he had earned a place on the All-District Football Team as a quarterback and designation as a Prep All-American in basketball with a 24.9 scoring average. Yet, by that time, honors he valued even more had come to him because of his burgeoning skills in the sport that was to be his life-long favorite. Three times he had landed a place on the Arkansas State Golf High School Championship Team; three times he was declared its State High School Golf Champion. 

His success on the links, coupled with a 3.85 senior-year grade-point average, led Louisiana State University to award him a four-year scholarship. Louis will forever be grateful not only for the degree in business administration that he received, but also for the opportunities in golf that his years as a Tiger provided. Between 1974 and 1978, he ranked among the Southeastern Conference’s most proficient golfers. Four times he was named to the SEC’s All-Conference Team, and in his senior season he added All-American Honorable Mention to his credentials.

Invitations to play professionally followed immediately thereafter. He was grateful, but not tempted. He did not want his life defined by golf, he consistently maintained, as much as he enjoyed and respected the sport. Unlike his older brother, Stan Lee, in his third year on the PGA Tour, he preferred to give his energies to the field in which he had earned his university degree and to pursue golf avocationally. Nor has he ever regretted that decision, although over the decades, admirers have spent many a pleasurable hour speculating about the success that might have come to him had he played as a pro on the national circuit.

For 35 years, the full life that Louis has found so gratifying emerged from a combination of success as a State Farm Insurance Agent and Office CEO, a loving family, selfless service to church, community and region and competitive amateur golf. During that lengthy period, his effectiveness on the links never diminished. His state golf championships — 15 in all — earned him induction into the Arkansas State Golf Hall of Fame in 2006. 

Five years later, after an absence of 40 years from national competition, he yielded to his brother Stan’s coaxing to join him in the United States Senior Amateur Qualifying event. Success in that preliminary challenge surprised him, and what followed amazed the golf world, a series of happenings as uplifting as they were unusual. Initially, he confesses, he feared he would “embarrass” himself. Soon thereafter, but only after Stan had counseled him and bolstered his confidence, he found himself opposing his brother in the quarterfinals of the match play tournament. Louis eliminated him in 19 holes. Stan then became Louis’s caddy, and pep-talked and guided him on his march to an 18-hole triumph in the National Finals. A fearful and supposedly rusty Louis emerged as the unlikely but grateful winner of the USGA’s National Senior Amateur Championship Tournament for 2011.

Not surprisingly, in the same year, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette named him its “Sportsman of the Year.” Three years later, he gained induction into the USGA’s National Senior Amateur Hall of Fame. But the honor he terms “the cherry on the cake” arrived just two years ago, joining his iconic, loving brother as a member of  the Panther (Athletic) Hall of Fame at Heber Springs High School in the county and the city to which he will always be grateful.

Heber Springs, Cleburne County and the 501 are all proud — and grateful — that Louis Lee’s athletic excellence was born and nurtured on their soil.

Bob Reising

Bob Reising retired from the University of Central Arkansas in December 2013 after more than six decades in education. He has taught and administered in Mexico, Saudi Arabia and the U.S. he also served as head coach of the University of South Carolina and interim head baseball coach at Duke, where he earned a doctorate with a dissertation treating Literature and Sports. He and his wife, Judy, live in Conway.

501 LIFE is once again profiling noteworthy athletes from Central Arkansas, one from each of the 11 counties in the 501, in a special series titled “Celebrating athletic excellence.” The 11 are representatives of the quality of athletes found throughout Central Arkansas and are not meant to be the best or the most noteworthy. This is the first installment in the second series.