Former longtime secretary of the Alabama state Senate, McDowell Lee, has died at the age of 89. His daughter says Lee died Thursday afternoon after a brief illness at his home in Auburn.

Lee was born in Clayton, Alabama, in 1925 and attended Auburn University before joining the military in 1943. He served in the U.S. Navy in World War II in both Europe and the Pacific. After the war, Lee graduated from Troy State University. Lee served one term as mayor of Clio before being elected to the Alabama House in 1954. After eight years in the House, he became secretary of the senate in 1963.

Lee served in that position for 47 years before retiring in 2010. Lee was the nation’s longest serving legislative secretary at the time of his retirement and was renowned for his knowledge of Alabama’s legislative procedures.

In 2008, WBHM’s Andrew Yeager spoke with Lee about his position and the change he had seen through five decades in the legislature.

~ Andrew Yeager and the Associated Press, April 18, 2014