MONROEVILLE, Ala. (AP) — Alice Lee, the sister of the famous “To Kill a Mockingbird” author and an influential Alabama lawyer and church leader in her own right, died Monday at age 103.
Lee practiced law until a few years ago, following the footsteps of her father — the model for small-town lawyer Atticus Finch, the driving character in “Mockingbird.” For a time, Lee was Alabama’s oldest practicing lawyer.
But perhaps most famously, Lee helped guard the privacy of her famous sister Nelle Harper Lee, who in 1961 won the Pulitzer Prize for her only published novel. Requests to interview Harper Lee often landed on the desk of Alice Lee, and the answer was always a firm, but polite, “No.”
On Tuesday, Johnson Funeral Home in Monroeville, the sisters’ longtime south Alabama home, posted an online notice saying Lee died Monday. No cause of death was given, and the announcement said arrangements were incomplete. Calls to Lee’s law practice — Barnett, Bugg, Lee and Carter, located near the courthouse that became a setting for her sister’s novel — went unanswered Tuesday.
In 2011, Alabama historian Wayne Flynt said in an appreciation that “Alice Lee was a pioneer long before her sister, Nelle Harper, spread her wings in New York.”
For years, Alice Lee was active as a leader in the United Methodist Church, which has an award named in her honor that is given to women in ministry. She was the first and still only female to lead the Alabama-West Florida Conference delegation to the church’s general conference.
“Women who have been the recipients of the Alice Lee Award have not only demonstrated commitment to God and their church, but have also been bridge builders and barrier breakers for women through their leadership in the church and community,” says the church’s explanation of the honor.
Earlier this year, the sisters were in the news following the publication of “The Mockingbird Next Door: Life with Harper Lee,” a book by Marja Mills. The former Chicago Tribune reporter moved next door to the Lee sisters in 2004 and remained there for 18 months, writing the book about her experiences with them.
Lee practiced law until a few years ago, following the footsteps of her father — the model for small-town lawyer Atticus Finch, the driving character in “Mockingbird.” For a time, Lee was Alabama’s oldest practicing lawyer.
But perhaps most famously, Lee helped guard the privacy of her famous sister Nelle Harper Lee, who in 1961 won the Pulitzer Prize for her only published novel. Requests to interview Harper Lee often landed on the desk of Alice Lee, and the answer was always a firm, but polite, “No.”
On Tuesday, Johnson Funeral Home in Monroeville, the sisters’ longtime south Alabama home, posted an online notice saying Lee died Monday. No cause of death was given, and the announcement said arrangements were incomplete. Calls to Lee’s law practice — Barnett, Bugg, Lee and Carter, located near the courthouse that became a setting for her sister’s novel — went unanswered Tuesday.
In 2011, Alabama historian Wayne Flynt said in an appreciation that “Alice Lee was a pioneer long before her sister, Nelle Harper, spread her wings in New York.”
For years, Alice Lee was active as a leader in the United Methodist Church, which has an award named in her honor that is given to women in ministry. She was the first and still only female to lead the Alabama-West Florida Conference delegation to the church’s general conference.
“Women who have been the recipients of the Alice Lee Award have not only demonstrated commitment to God and their church, but have also been bridge builders and barrier breakers for women through their leadership in the church and community,” says the church’s explanation of the honor.
Earlier this year, the sisters were in the news following the publication of “The Mockingbird Next Door: Life with Harper Lee,” a book by Marja Mills. The former Chicago Tribune reporter moved next door to the Lee sisters in 2004 and remained there for 18 months, writing the book about her experiences with them.
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