Born on July 21, 1903, in Ottawa, Illinois, Russell Werner Lee experienced a childhood marked with instability and unsettling events: his parents’ divorce, the death of his mother, and subsequent supervision by a number of legal guardians which included his grandparents and his great uncle.
During the fall of 1917, Lee enrolled in Culver Military Academy in Indiana, where he spent the next four years, until his graduation in 1921; he did well there, although he did not favor the military discipline. Lee attended Lehigh University in Pennsylvania from 1921 to 1925 and earned a degree in chemical engineering. He returned to Illinois and accepted a position making composition roofing for Certainteed Products Company in Marseilles.
In 1927 he married Doris Emrick; the following year, he was promoted to plant manager and was transferred to Kansas City. By 1929, he became exceedingly restless and bored with his career; he resigned and in September of that year the Lees moved to San Francisco where he pursued painting. A little over a year later, upon the suggestion of a friend, they relocated to an artist’s community in Woodstock, New York.