Heath Hardage Lee

Heath comes from a museum education, historic preservation, and writing background. She holds a B.A. in History with Honors from Davidson College, and an M.A. in French Language and Literature from the University of Virginia.

She started her museum career at the Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte, North Carolina, as the Director of Education and Programs. Heath has since worked as a consultant for southern house museums such as Stratford Hall, Robert E. Lee’s birthplace, and Menokin Plantation, once home to Francis Lightfoot Lee. She is currently working as the Coordinator of the History Series for Salisbury House & Gardens, a 1920’s house museum in Des Moines, Iowa.

Heath has written for numerous magazines, newspapers and blogs. Winnie Davis: Daughter of the Lost Cause, her biography of Varina Anne “Winnie” Davis, is her first book. Winnie will be published April 1, 2014, by Potomac Press, a division of the University of Nebraska Press.

Heath moved to Des Moines from her hometown of Richmond, Virginia in 2008. She is married to Chris Lee and they have two children, Anne Alston Lee and James Hawkins Lee. While living in Midwest, Heath has found that she loves the Iowa State Fair, the Butter Cow, and corn. True to her Southern roots, she still loves North Carolina BBQ, (the vinegar kind,) Virginia ham (very salty), and Sally Belle’s cupcakes (caramel). The cupcakes are made in Richmond, right down the street from the White House of the Confederacy where Winnie was born in 1864.