Lee Meriwether

Who was Lee Meriwether?

Lee Meriwether was an American author, government official and centenarian.

Born on Christmas Day in Columbus, Mississippi, he studied in the Memphis public school system. Afterwards he took a trip to Europe and, upon his return, was asked by the Secretary of the Interior to write a report on labor condition on that continent, which was published in the 1886 annual report of the US Bureau of Labor's annual report. From 1886-1889 he was employed by the Department of the Interior as a special agent investigating labor conditions in the US and the Kingdom of Hawaii. In 1889 he moved to Missouri where he became a labor commissioner, while reading law at his fathers law office in St. Louis. He was admitted to the Missouri Bar Association in 1892 he practiced law in St. Louis for nearly seventy years. He also wrote numerous travelogues and autobiographies. During World War I he was appointed Special Assistant to the American ambassador to France.