Falls Church's Lee Briggs, 92, Dies

Lee Briggs, 92, died on Saturday, Jan. 22, 2005, of natural causes at the Virginia Medical Center. A resident of Falls Church for 57 years, he was well known for his work with the Falls Church Historical Commission and the Falls Church Episcopal, for he provided hundreds of photographs of events and historic places.

Born in Pinetown, North Carolina, on June 19, 1912, he grew up in Asheville, N.C. He was the only child of Clarence Oliver Briggs and Myrtle Marsh Briggs.

He attended Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, on a scholarship from the National Music Camp and Interlochen, Michigan, where he was a student composer and conductor, sharing the stage with composers Howard Hansen and Percy Grainger.

He played the world's only contra-bass clarinet in 1929, which had just nbeen imported from France by Jimmy Gillette for his symphonic band. He graduated from Carleton College in 1935 as a Scott scholar in Greek studies. He also studied at Johns Hopkins School of Higher Studies in Baltimore and the University of N.C. at Chapel Hill, where he earned a teaching certificate. He was the supervisor of music for the city schools in Asheville, N.C., and extended the instrumental program into Buncombe County, N.C.

During World War II he served in the U.S. Marine Corps and was employed as a cryptologist at the Department of the Army, intelligence purchasing in Arlington, Va., from 1942 to 1973. He met and married Alice Longsworth Briggs, who also worked at Arlington Hall, in 1943. In 1946 they moved to Falls Church to raise a family and became involved in community affairs. Mr. Briggs served on the Greenway Downs Citizens Association, the Falls Church Zoning Board and Historical Commission and was a long-time vestryman and audio-visual educator at the historical Falls Church Episcopal.

After retirement, Mr. and Mrs. Briggs traveled, visiting Great Britain, Israel, Germany, Austria, Bavaria (including the 1980 Oberammergau Passion Play), Greece, Turkey, Italy, Australia and New Zealand.

Mr. Briggs lost his wife of 54 years to cancer in 1998. He is survived by his son, Carleton Longsworth Briggs and his wife Sharon, of St. Louis, Missouri, and his daughter, Jo Briggs Freeman, of Richmond, Virginia, and three grandchildren, April Marie Briggs of St. Louis, Mo., Cynthia Helen Briggs of Forest Park, Illinois, and Christopher Briggs Freeman of Richmond, Va.