Listen to Presentation of Ward Raylance Award to Katie Lee. (mp3 - 1,296kb)

Katie Lee, renowned singer/songwriter and river activist.
      In her memoir, All My Rivers Are Gone, Lee recounts her adventures on Glen during a time when that stretch of the Colorado was little known. Since the flooding of that stretch of the Colorado River in the 1960s, she has remained a fierce advocate of preserving wild rivers and open spaces. As Lee's friend Terry Tempest Williams once wrote: "Katie Lee is a joyful raconteur, a woman with grit, grace, and humor. She is not afraid to laugh and tease, cajole, and flirt, cuss, rant, howl, sing and cry. Katie Lee is the desert's lover, her voice is a torch in the wilderness." Writer Jim Stiles was more succinct: He simply adds the word "incomparable" before her name each time he refers to her.
      In addition to her work as an activist, Lee is also a renowned folksinger, with a number of albums to her credit. Much of her material is drawn from or inspired by the traditional songs performed by ranch hands, river runners and itinerant laborers of the Southwest.