Frances Marlene "Marlene" Lee

Frances Marlene Lee passed away peacefully on March 13, 2026, at Cottingham Retirement Community in Cincinnati, Ohio, at the age of 94. Born in Covington, Kentucky, to Ruth and Glenn Lee, she was known by her middle name, Marlene. She spent her Depression-era childhood in a boarding house in Latonia, Kentucky, run by her grandmother and mother, where she delighted in playing with her brother Dickie and her dog Skippy. A stellar student at Holmes High School, she remained close with many of her classmates well into their eighties.

Marlene married Roland Hermes at age 19, with whom she had three children: Julia Hermes (Melody Kozlok), the late Bruce Hermes, and the late Susan Hermes. After their divorce, she married WNOP radio personality Dick Pike, and together they had four more children: Matthew Pike (Joan Pike), Andrew Pike (Ukcha Pike), Laura Pike, and Amanda Pike Cobble (Lloyd Cobble). In the 1960s, their large family lived in Cincinnati’s North Avondale neighborhood, where they hosted lively parties often filled with jazz musicians and friends. She later fulfilled a long-held dream by moving to New England, living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, before purchasing a cottage in Camden, Maine, where she resided from the mid-1970s to the late 1980s. In retirement she returned to rural Kentucky, living in a cabin and raising animals, before moving back to the Cincinnati area in the 1990s to be near her children.

A voracious reader who often finished a book a day, Marlene was an open-minded autodidact drawn to the esoteric Fourth Way teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, while remaining a Christian at heart who found deep comfort in the Bible. A lifelong progressive, she was a steadfast advocate for civil rights, immigrants’ rights, and feminism. She possessed a remarkable talent for interior design, creating warm and distinctive homes wherever she lived. Gregarious and warm, she formed many enduring friendships that lasted for decades.

Marlene is survived by five of her seven children, seven of her eight grandchildren—Correna Starbuck, Paisley Starbuck, Andrea Hermes, Caitlin Pike, the late William Pike, Amelia Pike, Ben Cobble, and Lucy Cobble—and four great-grandchildren: Arlo Erickson, Jasper Hammonds, Zuri Starbuck, and Vivian Kohout Pike. Her family remembers her hardiness, independence, and the peaceful quality of her final days, supported by the compassionate care of Hospice of Cincinnati.