The Memphis Commercial Appeal Mid-South Memories May 13, 2012
Built in Memphis from bow to stern, the Lee Line’s Bob Lee Jr. will make her trial trip on the Mississippi this week. The stern wheeler is 145 feet long with a beam of 32 feet. Except for the upperworks, very little wood was used in her construction, the hull and decks being of steel. The boat was built for speed and it is thought she will be able to splash water on any packet on the river.
The only picture I have found in various steamboat picture archives is of the BOB LEE Jr renamed the CORONA which is pictured under the Univ. of Wisconsin tab above. The CORONA was bought by Standard Oil of New Jersey and was used to push barges in Mexico. Her sternwheel looks to be the size of much larger sternwheel boats such as the STACKER LEE. The BOB LEE Jr would have been named for my great uncle Robert E Lee’s son Bobby Lee my fathers first cousin.