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Chrys Dee Lemon, who practiced law as a partner for the D.C. law firm McIntyre & Lemon for the past 26 years specializing in banking and insurance law and who provided both financial and legal support for numerous LGBTQ organizations, died on Aug. 27 at the age of 64.
A write-up on Lemon’s life prepared by his family says Chrys Lemon’s death “occurred after losing an intense struggle with the side effects of prescription pharmaceuticals, despite the efforts of many good people.”
Public records from the D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner say the cause of death was suicide.
Longtime friends and acquaintances of Lemon, including those who knew him as a customer at Dupont Circle area gay bars, called him a generous and caring person who was a longtime supporter of the LGBTQ community.
The write-up by his family, which is posted on the website of the Vienna, Va., based Money & King Funeral Home, says Lemon was born and raised in Perryton, Texas, a small city just south of the Oklahoma border.
According to the write-up, Lemon and his twin sister grew up in a home of three boys and a girl where Chrys Lemon played the clarinet in his school band, sang as a soloist at the Perryton Annual Spring Concert, was an Eagle Scout, and later served as student body president at his high school. In keeping with his future leadership roles, according to the write-up, Lemon was voted Best Citizen as a high school sophomore and “Best All-Around” as a high school senior.
In 1976, the write-up says Lemon received a congressional appointment to attend the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, where he graduated in 1980 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics. It says he was trained as a fighter pilot and later served as an instructor for students learning to fly the T-38 fighter jets.
While stationed at Vance Air Force Base in Enid, Okla., he obtained a master’s degree in International Affairs from Oklahoma State University and he subsequently worked briefly as an analyst at the Pentagon in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the write up says.
It says that after leaving the Air Force in 1988, Lemon enrolled in American University’s Washington College of Law in D.C., where he received his law degree cum laude in 1991. He was admitted to practice law in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia in 1992 and in 2000 he obtained a Master of Law degree in the field of taxation from Georgetown University Law Center.
“Chrys spent the past 26 years of his life practicing law at the respected McIntyre & Lemon law firm in Washington, D.C.,” the write-up continues. It says the firm’s founder, James McIntyre served as a mentor for Lemon, helping him become an expert in the highly specialized field of law as it applies to banking, insurance, and trade groups.
“Chrys served on numerous committees and was a regular panelist, presenter and moderator at conferences for banks, insurance companies, professionals, and trade organizations,” the family write-up says.
In keeping with his devotion to helping others, the write-up says Lemon served on the board of many nonprofit organizations, both LGBTQ and others, including the LGBTQ Victory Fund and the National City Christian Church in D.C. Among other endeavors, he served as legal counsel for The Gayly, an LGBTQ newspaper in Oklahoma, the write-up says.
Longtime LGBTQ rights advocate William Waybourn said he met Lemon in the early 1990s through a mutual acquaintance and the two became good friends for close to 30 years. Waybourn said that in his role at the time as executive director of then Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, which raises money for the election of LGBTQ people to public office, he introduced Lemon to the organization’s work, which led to Lemon becoming a member of the group’s board.
Waybourn said that after coming out as gay to his parents, Bob and Mary Lou Lemon, his parents also became supporters of the Victory Fund and other LGBTQ organizations.
The family write-up says some of the other organizations that Lemon supported included LGBTQ groups such as the Trevor Project, Freedom To Marry as well as non-LGBTQ specific groups such as the American Pops Orchestra. “In 2015, with his nephew Michael and brother Jim, Chrys also co-founded Bridge to Renewables, a company now helping in the fight against climate change by connecting approximately 150,000 electric vehicles to renewable electricity in California,” says the write-up.
“The essence of Chrys Lemon was his ability to see the invisible people who just needed a little help, a small act of kindness, and the acknowledgement of their existence,” the family write-up says. “Chris served his country. He was a defender of democracy, fought against hate, and for justice and equal treatment in our nation.”
The write-up says Lemon was preceded in death by his parents and is survived by his twin sister, Robyn Lemon Sellers of Oklahoma City; brothers Del Lemon of Austin, Texas; Jim Lemon of Vienna, Va.; Eli ‘Moque’ Grayson of Tulsa, Okla.; and many nieces, nephews, cousins, and “legions” of friends and colleagues.
It says a memorial service for Lemon was scheduled to be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 9, at National City Christian Church at 5 Thomas Circle in D.C., which will also be live-streamed on YouTube.
Contributions in lieu of flowers can be made, the write-up says, to the nonprofit Dona Ana Village Association in Lemon’s name.