Native born Richmonder here. We pronounced it Lee. Parham is pronounced “Pair-‘em” and Powhite is pronounced Po-White, at least from the 1940s. There was never any controversy about the pronunciations until the 1980s, making the alternates a newish phenomenon. Coincidentally, the 1980s is when growth seemed to really take off in the area and lots of people moved from other places. Probably where the pronunciation conflict stems from. Of course, perhaps it was just not mentioned in the media at the time and, of course, no social media.