Published: Friday, November 12, 2010, 5:30 AM
MONTGOMERY -- McDowell Lee plans to step down soon after working 47 years as secretary of the Senate, but many people at the State House likely won't forget his face.?
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??A framed oil painting of Lee, paid for with $11,000 in state funds authorized by legislators, hangs on a wall just outside the glass doors to the Senate chamber.?
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??A $5,000 bronze bust of Lee, atop a marble pedestal that cost about $10,000, stands in the lobby between the Senate chambers and senators' offices. Friends of Lee, including lobbyists and former senators, paid for the bust and pedestal.?
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??"The fact that my bosses, the Senate, put the portrait out there just gets to me. I really appreciate it," Lee said, adding that he felt "humbled" that friends arranged for the bust and pedestal.?
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??Lee, 85, plans to retire in February. His tenure as Senate secretary started when the Senate voted 35-0 to appoint him in July 1963, when James B. Allen, later to become a U.S. senator, was lieutenant governor and George Wallace was in his first year as governor.?
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??Lee's bust, sculpted by retired Birmingham attorney Warren Lightfoot, is within a few feet of a bronze bust of Jesse E. Speight, Lee's predecessor as secretary of the Senate. Speight held the job from 1923 until he died in 1963.?
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??"You've got 87 years of the Alabama Senate with two people," said Senate security officer Sam Smith. "That'll never be done .¤.¤. anytime again, I don't believe."?
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??Lee's portrait, painted by Jie Ruan of Montgomery, is about three feet wide and four feet high. "I think that's a lot better looking than I am," Lee said of the painting. "My wife (Hazel) is tickled to death."?
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??Then-Sen. Larry Dixon, R-Montgomery, who did not seek re-election in last week's elections, sponsored the Senate joint resolution that authorized Lee's portrait. "There are a myriad of reasons why you honor someone: longevity, excellence, great staff," Dixon said. "All those reasons fit."?
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??The other 34 senators co-sponsored the resolution, which passed the Senate and House of Representatives in March. Gov. Bob Riley let it take effect.?
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??The resolution said Lee "has been an exemplary public servant over his long career," and that he was a World War II veteran, FBI agent, mayor of Clio and a two-term House member before becoming Senate secretary.?
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??As secretary, Lee supervises the roughly 80 people who work for the Senate. He has enforced many Senate rules and helped the Senate's presiding officer, usually the lieutenant governor, interpret Senate rules and state laws when disputes arose on the Senate floor.?
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??Lee, in an earlier interview, said his salary was $36,000 a year when he took the job in 1963, and he got cost-of-living raises along with other state employees over the decades. He now makes $289,913 a year. To compare, the governor's salary now is just less than $113,000.?
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??The Senate next year will elect Lee's successor.?
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