Dr. Lee, who grew up in Augusta, Ga., was a neurosurgeon at TidalHealth Peninsula Regional in Salisbury, Md., from which he retired in September. He graduated cum laude from Princeton and received a medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. He has two children from a previous marriage, which ended in divorce.
“He has a beautiful, gentle Southern resonance to his voice,” said Ms. Greene, who grew up in Oakland, Mo., and whose husband died in 2009. “I loved talking to him.”
Yet, Ms. Greene, 70, who lived a few blocks from the restaurant, was not interested in a relationship, and went on the date mainly to humor her friends.
“She’s elegant, worldly, has manners and taste,” Dr. Lee, 69, said.
Ms. Greene, who graduated from the University of Missouri, was a group president at Estée Lauder, directing the global businesses of Aveda, Clinique, Darphin and Origins, from which she retired in 2016, and then got down to writing a memoir about her 40 years in the industry.
Swept up in the twinkling lights and the band playing on the evening of their first date, Dr. Lee asked her to dance on their way out, to which she politely said, “No thank you.”
