Joel "Lee" Clement was the 6th of 11 children, born on October 9, 1923 to Lester & Emily "Maude" (Johnson) Clement. Growing up in a large family during the Depression he learned to save, reuse, repair, repurpose, make-do and live without, and he lived these principles throughout his life. Grandpa, as he was affectionately called by all who knew him, would even sew up the holes in his socks well into his 90s!

Lee met the love of his life, Vona Dixon, when he took some of his friends in Mesa to visit their cousins in the Gila Valley. They were standing out by the gate before Sunday School talking, when in his words, "suddenly out of nowhere stepped the girl of my dreams - who turned out to be that Dixon cousin we had come to see." He said, "We had a lot of fun that day and it didn't take me long to keep the road hot from Mesa to that Dixon door in Bryce where she lived." They dated for a year and were married on August 6, 1945 and were later sealed for time and all eternity on April 24, 1951 in the Mesa, Arizona temple.

Their first home was a two-room house in Mesa that they rented for $15.00 a month. They moved to Flagstaff, Arizona in 1955 for a better job opportunity for Lee. When his employer, Hutchinson Motors, decided to go out of business they returned to Mesa in February 1960. Their move to Flagstaff was divine intervention, as their former Bishop, knowing of their inability to have children and their desire to adopt, reached out to them on January 21, 1962 asking if they would like a baby boy who had been born the previous day. They were beyond thrilled to finally add a baby to their family after 16 years of marriage.

Lee served many years in various callings in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints including Ward Clerk, Assistant Sunday School Superintendent, YMMIA age group Counselor, Superintendent and General Secretary of the Aaronic Priesthood.

Lee & Vona loved spending their spare time exploring the back roads of Arizona together and shared their love of the outdoors during many a camping trip with their son Darvin, daughter-in-law Denise and their girls.  Lee was a hard worker 2nd to none and could fix or build anything. He was a man of few words with a heart of gold. He was always content to watch and observe and just be present with his family around.

When the love of his life died on January 18, 2012 the family was concerned that Grandpa would soon follow, as his life's passion had been to cherish, support and take care of his sweetheart Vona. When Darvin and Denise told Grandpa towards the end of 2012 that they were moving to Texas and he was coming with them he wasn't a big fan, but the move presented the opportunity to share a home so he wasn't alone and brought him near most of his granddaughters and great grandchildren. Grandpa enjoyed having pets in their Texas home and he and Bear dog were best buds. The great grandchildren loved sneaking into Grandpa's room where he would assuredly give them free reign of his computer, notebook paper, pens and pencils or rides up and down in his power lift recliner chair. They were always delighted to get a ride throughout the house on Grandpa's walker!

Grandpa's unique sense of humor was shared in his "This is my day" Facebook journal posts, with a rundown of what happened in his day and frequently ending, "Goodnight everybody, I am now going to brush my tooth and go to bed."  So many in our community knew Grandpa because of his walks through town. He would grab his walker and head out for a walk almost daily, even up until the day before he died. He would take an empty box to gather trash, tennis balls, baseballs, etc that he found while walking. He was known to stop and strike up a conversation with passersby, handing out his 'business cards' which read: Grandpa Lee Clement, followed by his address and phone number and ending with, A 98 year old grouch. Everyone who knew him or had ever met him knew that he was the exact opposite of an old grouch! As he got older, he tended to lose his bearings more frequently on his walks. We are forever grateful to the wonderful people in our Town of Prosper, who would stop to make sure he was OK and would so willingly load him and his walker into their vehicles and drive him safely home.

Lee passed on August 30, 2022 peacefully in his sleep with a smile on his face that we like to think was because his sweetheart had come to take him home. He is survived by his son and daughter-in-law, Darvin Lee and Denise (Larkin) Clement, 4 granddaughters Erin Nicole Chatwin, Ashley LeeAnn Rush, Lindsey Yvonne Giles, Briana Nellie Pascual, and 11 great grandchildren. We will be honoring his wishes to take him back to Yakima, Washington to be buried next to his love Vona and a celebration of life is being planned to be held in Prosper, Texas. Please reach out to Darvin or Denise if you'd like to receive details for either.