​Tamica Lee is a striking woman just one inch shy of six feet tall.
“I have always loved being tall,” says the traffic reporter at WWL-TV, the local CBS affiliate. “I enjoy it because it makes me different.”
It is an understatement to say that Lee makes an impression when she walks into a room. “What I wear best is confidence,” she says, adding, “I wear what is comfortable and functional.”
Always versatile, Lee can be a fashion plate in the latest high style outfit or show up in flip flops and cut-off shorts to pick up her two children – Rani, 6, and Hunter 13 – at school. And there is no denying that Tamica does enjoy playing up her “Michelle Obama” muscular arms by often wearing sleeveless dresses, pants outfits or blouses. “Yes, I do have a muscular build, although I will probably disappoint some people when I say I don’t have a regular workout routine.”
Lee and her husband, Bary Smith, founder and owner of both FUEL Center of Fitness gyms and First Team Athletic Apparel, live in a fashionable area of Metairie where she keeps her extensive wardrobe in three closets.
“I have a closet for just my work clothes,” Lee says. “I also have separate closets for my winter stuff and another one for spring and summer clothes. I hate to admit this, but I have taken over almost every drawer in the master bedroom, and a few other rooms of our house. And saying this out loud about my three closets and many packed drawers reminds me that I need to get more organized.”
She admits that she loves to shop but whispers, “I do most of my shopping online.”
Lee is a proud graduate of Ursuline Academy and the University of Louisiana Lafayette (where she majored in communications and minored in dance). While she enjoys serving as appearance director of the New Orleans Saintsations, the NFL cheerleaders for the Saints team, she feels that being the traffic reporter for WWL is the best job ever.
“I can’t believe I work with Sally Ann Roberts and Eric Paulsen,” she says. “I watched them growing up and now I sit next to them every morning. It is kind of surreal. The early morning crew with Mike Hoss, Laura Buchtel and Sheba Turk is always fun. We get along very well at work and we are all friends outside of work. Even our floor crew is the best.”
The tragedy of her life is that her father, who was drafted in the third round to play with the Saints in 1971, died at 36 of a heart attack. “I was only six years old at the time, and my mother did an amazing job of raising my brother, Bivian ‘Sonny’ Lee III, and me,” she says. Lee is has always been a loyal Saints fan. “I bleed black and gold,” she says.
Switching back to her love of fashion, she offers some sage advice:
*Always go down a size when purchasing jeans. They will stretch and you will end up looking amazing.
*Always go up a size when buying a dress, and then get it taken in. It will fit beyond incredible.
*Don’t worry about what size you are wearing. Nobody can see what the size is on the label but you. Just be confident.
