Dan M. Lee

Daniel McKinnon Lee Sr. (April 19, 1926 – May 9, 2010) was a justice of the Supreme Court of Mississippi from 1981 to 1998, serving as chief justice from 1995 to 1998.

Early life, education, and military service Born in Petal, Forrest County, Mississippi, to Buford Aaron Lee and Pherbia Anna Camp Lee, he graduated from Petal High School in 1944, and served as a pilot in the United States Navy during World War II, beginning his training as an aerial gunner at the naval air base in Jacksonville, Florida in 1944. He served until 1946, for a time stationed on the aircraft carrier USS Princeton. For many years after the war, he maintained and flew his own airplane. and the Mississippi College School of Law in Jackson, Mississippi, This involvement was raised as an issue when Lee ran for a seat on the state supreme court in 1980, as a Democrat seeking to succeed retiring justice Stokes Robertson Jr., but Lee handily defeated his Republican opponent, James Arden Barnett. Lee served from 1981 to 1998. Lee declined to run for reelection in 1997, choosing to retire from the court at the beginning of the 1998 term.

In 2003, the town of Petal named its new court building after Lee.

Lee died from complications of diabetes and Parkinson's disease at the age of 84.