Etta Dowd Lee Matthews

August 9, 1957 - October 22, 2016

Etta Dowd Lee Matthews, 59, beloved wife, and mother passed away Saturday, October 22, 2016 at her home in Raleigh after a brief period of breast cancer and chemotherapy. A graveside funeral service will be held on Friday October 28, 2016 at 1:00 p.m. at Greenlawn Memorial Gardens, Fuquay-Varina.

Etta was born in Wake County on August 9, 1957, and was the only child of Warren Lee and the late, Margaret Lee.

She  is survived by husband Brian and son Edward of Raleigh; and her father, Warren Lee of Fuquay-Varina, plus many other family and close friends.

She was a member of the BETA club at Fuquay-Varina High School, received her BA in Journalism (honors) from UNC-CH,  and was honored by The Daily Tar Heel at UNC for steadfast and meritorious service as a staff writer. She became editor of Fuquay-Varina's The Independent.  While she was at The Independent, Etta helped pull newspaper obituaries for me when I put together our first list of FVHS '75 Classmate Memorials.  Etta later worked at Wake Tech as an assistant communication director where she met her husband Brian.

She was a bright light in our life, and was taken too soon.

submitted by Beth Ragan; from News & Observer, October 25, 2016