Sacramento, California - Jimmy Rayford Lee, a former Colorado legislator who went by Jim, died in his sleep on April 30, 2026, at his home in Sacramento, Calif. He was 85.

Lee relocated to suburban Denver from Louisiana in the 1970s to practice law. In 1977, he launched a political career by winning a seat on the Lakewood, Colo., City Council. After a two-year term, he was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives in 1980, serving two two-year terms representing District 23, covering part of Denver's western suburbs. He was a delegate for Ronald Reagan at that year's Republican Party Convention. He served on the Colorado governor's task force against drunk driving and on several state legislative committees, including Finance, State Affairs, and Health, Environment, Welfare and Institutions. In 1984, he was elected to the State Senate representing District 21. While in the Senate, Lee was most notably a co-sponsor of the measure that raised Colorado's legal drinking age to 21 in the early 1980s. He served two Senate terms and did not run for a third. Instead, he returned to the private sector, registering as a legislative lobbyist and working as a sales associate for Pre-Paid Legal Inc. He relocated in Sacramento in 2017.

Lee received a bachelor's degree in political science through the ROTC program at Louisiana Polytechnic Institute in 1963, after which he served in administrative assignments in the Air Force at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia and in Vietnam. He received an honorable discharge at the rank of captain in 1968. He received a law degree from Loyola University in New Orleans in 1973.

His parents were Roddy Lee (1912-1962) and Velma Lambright Lee (1917-1999), both of Haynesville, La. His marriage to Lucille Vucinovich of Shreveport, La., produced two children but ended in divorce. Lee went on to marry four times. He is survived by his sons, Patrick Lee Plaisance of State College, Pa., and Peter Plaisance of San Diego, Calif.; his wife, Prapai of Chantilly, Va.; two grandchildren, Karina and Tragedy Plaisance; brother, Kenneth Wayne (Buddy); and various nieces and nephews.

No memorial services are planned.