Willis Augustus Lee was born in Natlee, Kentucky, one of four children of Willis Augustus Lee, a local lawyer and judge, and Susan Ireland (Arnold) Lee. He was a direct descendant of Charles Lee, brother of Henry ("Light-Horse Harry") Lee and Attorney General in Washington's second administration. Young Lee was reared in Owenton, Kentucky.
He was educated in the local schools. Upon graduation from high school in 1904, he received a Congressional appointment to the United States Naval Academy, from which he graduated in 1908.
The nickname, "Ching, " that he acquired in college was later reinforced by service in China in the 1920's. At Annapolis, Lee developed an ability as a marksman that won him distinction in national shooting matches and a place on the United States Olympic team of 1920. Lee's early years in the navy included service at Vera Cruz (1914) and World War I assignments as inspector of ordnance at a munitions plant and with the destroyer forces at Brest. His sea duty in the two postwar decades saw him as commander of three different destroyers; as navigator, then executive officer, of the battleship Pennsylvania (1931 - 1933); and, after promotion to captain in 1936, as commanding officer of the light cruiser Concord. His last sea duty before World War II was as chief of staff to the Commander, Cruiser Divisions, Battle Force.
By 1939 Lee's reputation was that of a "blue water" sailor, competent but not a stickler for regulations, an avid reader and easy mixer. He liked younger officers and among them wore his rank lightly. On the eve of the war (June 1939 - March 1942) Lee served as assistant director, then director, of fleet training. He pressed successfully to have civilian scientists incorporated into his division so that they could become intimately aware of fleet operational problems, as, for example, in the installation of radar units for gun-fire direction. His principal war duty, however, was at sea. When new battleships became available in 1942, Lee received command of the first division (Washington and South Dakota) and took them into the Southwest Pacific.
On November 15, 1942, in one of the few battle-line engagements of the war, Lee commanded a task force off Guadalcanal that sank a Japanese battleship and destroyer and prevented the Japanese from landing extensive reinforcements on that island. In March 1944 Lee was advanced to vice admiral, with command of a battleship squadron.
Most often his new battleships, because of their speed, operated with the fast carrier task forces, providing antiaircraft gunfire cover for the carriers, a function that Admiral Lee developed to the state of an art. In the navy's "island-hopping" advance toward the shores of Japan, Lee's battleships continued to support fleet operations, often by ship-to-shore bombardment. Japanese kamikaze (suicide) aircraft attacks, however, took a heavy toll. In May 1945, after almost three years at sea, Vice Admiral Lee relinquished his battleship command and returned to the United States on leave. The next month he was assigned to a special training project at Casco Bay, Maine, headed by Commodore Arleigh Burke, which was studying antikamikaze weapons and tactics. That August, while riding out to his flagship Wyoming, anchored in Casco Bay, Lee suffered a fatal heart attack. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Lee was distinguished for his military service at the United States Navy during World War I and World War II. He participated in every major action except the battle of Midway. He took part in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal that became the turning point in both the Guadalcanal Campaign and the Pacific War itself. He was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions at the battle. Lee was also a skilled sport shooter, and won seven medals in the 1920 Olympics shooting events.
Lee had married Mabelle Ellspeth Allen of Rock Island, Illinois, on July 14, 1919. They had no children.
