Comedian Grandma Lee, who made it to Top 10 on 'America's Got Talent' Season 4, dies at 85
Francis Lee Strong, better known as Grandma Lee, the geriatric comic who joked her way to the Top 10 on Season 4 of ‘America's Got Talent’ died on Friday, April 24, afternoon at the age of 85.
According to a TMZ report, her son Kelly said that she was at her assisted living facility in Jacksonville, Florida, at the time of her death. Kelly further said that her death was not caused by the novel coronavirus.
Per Kelly, Lee had continued doing stand-up comedy shows up until November 2019. After a gig in Tampa, Florida, however, when she fell in her hotel room and broke her hip, she stopped. He said that she never fully recovered from the injury.
Per the report, Lee’s family will host a service celebrating her life once the lockdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic is lifted and once things begin to normalize. Her family reportedly said, “Heaven just got a whole lot funnier.”
She was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on May 29, 1934. After graduating from Otterbein College in Ohio, she married a marine, Ben Strong. Lee lost her husband to cancer in 1995. To cope with the loss, Lee began attending a local comedy workshop.
Grandma Lee rose to fame in 2009 when she competed on 'America’s Got Talent'. She was 75 at the time. She made it to the top ten, but Grandma Lee did not receive enough votes to be included in the top five, which led to her elimination from the competition. Speaking to People Magazine during her stint on the reality show, Lee had said, “All my material is based on the truth. I go up there and wing it. But I practiced it to myself. One of my sons will help and time me and say different things.”
She had added that she had been doing comedy for about 11 or 12 years, at that point. “I have traveled all over the country doing comedy. But I had to clean it up for the show. I won’t say a cuss word or anything to jeopardize [myself]. I can do clean or edgy.”