Before becoming homeless, Lee Godie led a comfortable life. Married, she had three children. Two of them died, and she divorced in 1940. From the 1960s onward, she lived on the streets of Chicago and began to paint. This marginal life did not prevent her from trying to show her work. In the 1970s and 1980s, she became a well-known figure on the Chicago scene. She often stood on the steps of the Art Institute of Chicago, presenting herself as a French Impressionist—“Lee Godie Artist”—and trying to sell her paintings, which she carried under her heavy coats, to visitors, students, and professors of the Institute. Alongside her painted work, she created a series of quite extraordinary photo booth portraits. In 1988, her only surviving daughter found her and took care of her until her death.