Ora Lee is one of the first servants to be employed at Blackwood Farm by its founder, Manfred Blackwood. She works in the kitchen and marries another servant, Jerome. She and he are both children of free Creoles of color, who were artisans during the Civil War. Ora Lee and Jerome both care for Manfred’s family, especially his first wife, Virginia Lee, and his children, William and Camille. Ora Lee becomes a legendary ancestor of the twentieth-century employees of Blackwood Farm, in particular Big Ramona, who works in the kitchen; her daughter, Little Ida, who is Quinn Blackwood’s nanny; and her daughter, Jasmine, who is the housekeeper and mother of Quinn’s son, little Jerome.
Ora Lee appears in Blackwood Farm (2002). For more perspectives on her character, read the Alphabettery entries Big Ramona, Jasmine, Jerome, Little Ida, Little Jerome, Manfred Blackwood, Quinn Blackwood, and Virginia Lee Blackwood.