Henry Fitzhugh Lee was born August 31, 1874, at Clayton, Barbour County, Ala., and is the son of Alto V. and Lillian Frances (Lawrence) Lee, and the grandson of Lovard and Susan B. (Lovelace) Lee, and of William Heywood and Lucy (Anthony) Lawrence, of Tuscaloosa, and the great grandson of Needham and Lydia (Pryor) Lee, a native of Georgia. Alto V. Lee served as Captain of Co. E, 63rd Alabama Infantry Regiment in the C.S.A.

Mr. Lee was educated in the common schools of Clayton, and later took a business course. In 1900 he was chief clerk in the Probate Court in Eufaula, having charge of the business of the branch courthouse there. He served as Examiner of Public Accounts under Governors William Jelks and Braxton Comer, 1906-1911; was Chief Clerk in the State Auditor's Office, 1911-1915; Secretary State Board of Equalization, 1915-1919, and was elected State Auditor, November 1919.

He was a Democrat, a Methodist, a Mason, a Knight of Pythias, and a Woodman of the World. He married Wyllanne Pruett, daughter of Judge William H. and Anne (Browder) Pruett, of Eufaula, at Clayton, in January, 1897.