Lee was born November 1, 1950 in Providence, Rhode Island. She spent her early years in Riverside, RI and was at the beach every chance she could get. She moved to Barrington, RI in 1958 and graduated from Barrington High School in 1968.

Shortly after moving to Virginia in 1970, she met Robert (“Bob”) Boebel and married at the age of 22. The couple lived in Blacksburg VA, then Alexandria VA and then Woodbridge, VA, where they raised two children, Bill & Scott Boebel.

In 1983, Lee & Bob founded a printing company, Discount Newsletter Printing which they ran together until Bob’s passing in 1999. Lee considered her employees family and continued to run the business until she retired in 2010. Prior to their business, she worked in The White House, Department of Navy, and the Radford Army Ammunition Plant. She is a graduate of Northern Virginia Community College.

In 2001, Lee met her partner and loving companion of 23 years, Larry Parnelle. The couple moved to San Marcos, TX in 2019, to be closer to Lee’s two sons and their family. As Lee has done throughout her life, she and Larry quickly made many new close friends in their community of Kissing Tree, San Marcos.

Lee was active in her church, as well as many organizations such as the Woodbridge Women’s Club, Sjogren's Foundation, Susan B. Komen, and Belmont Bay Social Committee.

Sadly, Lee passed away at her home on November 26, 2023 at the age of 73.

Lee’s brother said she saw the world through “rose-colored glasses,” because she saw the good in everything. I’m sure she is somewhere smiling and hoping we are too, because she died the way she would have wanted, having just returned from a lovely week in Japan with her two sons – one of the most enjoyable weeks of her life. We are smiling with her, but it is difficult.

Lee is survived by her partner and loving companion of 23 years, Larry Parnelle.

She has two sons and two daughter-in-laws, Bill & Beth Boebel, and Scott & Stacey Boebel.

She has four grandchildren, Scott & Stacey’s children, Adeline & Emmett, as well as Bill & Beth’s children, Ming & Miles.

Lee grew up with her brother and sister, Richard V Cunningham Jr and Candice (Cunningham) Sackal, and was very close with her brother-in-law, Dennis Sackal, and sister-in-law, the late Danielle Cunningham. 

She has four nieces and nephews, Brenden & Kyleigh Sackal and Natalie & Luke Cunningham, and a grand-niece, Danielle.

She was born to the late Richard Vincent Cunningham & Elizabeth Lee Roberts.

Lee was very close with dozens of cousins, in-laws, generations of uncles and aunts, and friends that she adopted into the family. 

She was the glue that kept our family together.

Lee loved to travel the world. She has visited Switzerland, Germany, England, Ireland, Scotland, Iceland, Finland, Estonia, France, Italy, Greece, Mexico, Jamaica, Canada, Japan and the Caribbean, and had more trips planned.

Most of all, she loved visiting family. Throughout her life, there were dozens of summer trips to visit family in Rhode Island, and many Christmas weeks visiting grandparents in Sanibel Island, Florida.

Recently she and her sister had attempted a cross-country road trip. Unfortunately, Lee got sick during this trip and they had to return early. This became a recurring issue in recent years, but she was determined to continue to explore the world and visit her family whenever they would let her.

We don't get to choose how we exit this world, but if she could she would have said something like “The week before I die I’m going to fly to the other side of the planet and explore a new country with my boys.”  This is exactly what she did.

In her final week she ate the best sushi of her life, explored the Tokyo fish market and the busy streets of Shibuya, visited Mt Fuji, checked out many shrines and temples in Kyoto, and learned to use Ninja throwing stars & blow darts with her grandkids.

Now she is off to her biggest adventure of them all.