BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Jessica Lee was, quite simply, special.
Extraordinarily talented. Confident. Fiercely loyal. Hers was a toolbox rattling with unending sensitivity and incomparable skills.
The longtime, Emmy Award-winning graphics designer for PBS39 and Lehigh Valley Public Media died on Thursday from cancer at age 67 while in hospice care at home in her native Bethlehem.
Although Lee worked on the other side of the camera and may not have been known to many PBS39 viewers, they are certainly aware of her sterling work given the 45-plus years of creating colorful and imaginative graphics that accompanied so many of the network’s programming such as Community Conversations, "Living in the Lehigh Valley" and "Scholastic Scrimmage" — right down to the current PBS39 logo itself and its various iterations throughout the years.
“Professionally, Jess was way more than a graphics designer — she was a partner,” said Javier Diaz, director of video and broadcast content for PBS39.
“When I would direct shows, Jess was my right hand. She was very creative. She would play graphics live, but also told me when things didn’t look right or were not colored correctly. She had such a great eye.
“She could also be very blunt, which I greatly appreciated because she was all about making the product better.”
Lee mastered every aspect of the media production industry, from creating sets, to shooting photos, and making the seamless transition from analog to digital.
“Through the 1980s and 90s, and even when she wasn’t physically building sets anymore, if we were building a set for a new show, I had Jess right there with me,” Diaz said.
“She had that great eye for design and camera angles.”
“She was a terrific partner who created great programming for the Lehigh Valley.”Javier Diaz, director of video and broadcast content for PBS39, on Jessica Lee
Diaz, who first met Lee when he was in kindergarten and his mother was employed at PBS39, credited Lee with his immense knowledge of graphics design.
“Everything I know about broadcast graphics I attribute to Jess,” he said. “Today, when my team makes graphics, I immediately think, ‘What would Jess think of this?’
“She was a terrific partner that created great programming for the Lehigh Valley.”
Deep Bethlehem roots
Born in Bethlehem, Lee was a graduate of Liberty High School, Class of 1976, where she was a proud member of its nationally renowned Grenadier band, playing the euphonium, a brass instrument.
She also was a member of the school's alumni band.
Lee received a bachelor of fine arts degree in communications design at Kutztown University in 1980, and shortly after was hired at PBS39 when its headquarters was still on South Mountain.
Among the crowning achievements of Lee’s long and distinguished career in television was her being honored in 2021 by the Silver Circle Society of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, or NATAS.
The honor recognizes television professionals with at least 25 years of significant contributions to the industry, service and community, with induction signifying deep respect and impact.
“She deserved that honor,” Diaz said. “There wasn’t anything in television she couldn’t do exceptionally well.”
The inner drive Lee possessed was gifted to her by her mother, Esther M. Lee, a veteran leader of the civil rights movement in Bethlehem.
The elder Lee, 92, took prejudice head on and won. Born in Bethlehem, this great-granddaughter of a slave in 1971 became the first African American woman elected to the Bethlehem School Board.
She would become the president of the Bethlehem chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP.
“Children get a glimpse of what we as parents are doing for ourselves and our children,” Lee said via phone on Friday morning.
“I was always starting something and Jess was right there by my side. She wasn’t always just watching; she helped me develop many things. She understood my progressiveness.
“Jess showed so much promise in her early years. She also wanted to achieve — and she did.”
Saying goodbye
Lee ignored her grief for a moment, a lilt in her voice kidnapping her sadness.
She recalled her daughter becoming a ballerina at age 6 with the Bethlehem Conservatory of Music.
A mother’s sadness returned while discussing her daughter’s piano playing.
“She would play for me sometimes, even now,” she said. “I will miss that.”
Wednesday evening, a mother experiencing her worst nightmare, sat beside her dying daughter in the quiet of her bedroom.
This unnatural order of life — children dying before parents — pained Lee’s heart.
“She was unable to express herself at the end,” Lee said. “I was having a conversation with her, telling her how much I loved her. She couldn’t respond.
“I told her that everybody loved her, that I loved her. I know she heard me. I have to believe that. I have to.
“She’s at peace now. But it doesn’t make it any easier. As adults, we all know we’re going to die. But it wasn’t supposed to happen this way.”
A memorial service for Jessica Lee is scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday, Jan. 16, at Cathedral Church of the Nativity, Third and Wyandotte streets, Bethlehem.
