Robert Lee is a city in and the county seat of Coke County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,049 at the 2010 census.The founders named the city after Robert E. Lee who is thought to have set up camp for a time near the current townsite on the Colorado River. Lee served in Texas from 1856 to 1861 as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Second Cavalry, during which time he distinguished himself as a scout and engineer.The town of Robert Lee is located on the Colorado River. Just upstream from the town is E.V. Spence Reservoir, managed by the Colorado River Municipal Water District. From the mid-1960s until approximately 1996, the reservoir's population of striped bass attracted sportsmen from across the southwestern U.S., providing significant income to the town. In the late 1990s, however, water use policies changed and the reservoir water levels were continually lowered until the striped bass population could no longer be sustained.