About Bee

For five decades, Bee’s passion and persistence transformed the cultural climate of Colorado Springs. Friends and colleagues referred to “the Bee factor”: Bee’s unceasing ability to tackle new endeavors with gusto and achieve goals others thought impossible.

Under the nearly four decades of leadership Bee provided as general manager of the Colorado Springs Symphony Orchestra, the organization grew from a fledgling music group with an annual budget of $25,000 to a nationally recognized orchestra with a budget of $2 million that always operated in the black. She nurtured it from the living room of her own home until operations eventually moved in the 1970s to a separate office with a growing staff.

Her son, George, recalls growing up in a home brimming with culture. Pianist Van Cliburn and violinist Isaac Stern were family friends and frequent guests.

But Bee’s commitment to the Colorado Springs community extended beyond symphonic music. Her proudest achievement was shepherding the capital campaign and construction of the $14 million Pikes Peak Center for the performing arts, which opened in 1982 and remains the cultural cornerstone of the city.

Bee retired from the Colorado Springs Symphony Orchestra in 1990, but her leadership and initiative in the arts community continued until her death. Bee was, quite simply, a visionary who took on all tasks large and small. She never doubted that a town the size of Colorado Springs could support – and deserved – the highest of artistic achievement. As she saw needs in the cultural community, she set out immediately to fill them. So much of what she launched or helped to launch continues to this day.

In a 1990 article in the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, conductor Charles Ansbacher said of his friend: “Bee is a brilliant woman, dedicated, unselfish, and a woman who has warmth and generosity of spirit. She has exuded concern for musicians, has an absolutely untiring commitment to the betterment of the community, and a generosity of spirit.”