‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ author Harper Lee dies at 89

Former US president George W Bush, who awarded the author the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007 in one of the most public outings of her later years, released a statement saying, “Harper Lee was ahead of her time and her masterpiece To Kill a Mockingbird prodded America catch up with her”.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author was living in a nursing home in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, upon which she based the town of Maycomb, the setting for her acclaimed book.

“She was an Alabama treasure. I believe she wasn’t strong enough at the end of her life to make any informed decisions about her work”, he said.

The southern Alabama town of Monroeville seems destined to always be linked to Nelle Harper Lee. Millions who thought they “knew” Atticus Finch, who named their children for him and became lawyers because of him were faced with a seemingly different man in the new book, which took place 20 years later but actually had been written before Lee turned to what became “To Kill a Mockingbird“.

“The world knows Harper Lee was a brilliant writer but what many don’t know is that she was an extraordinary woman of great joyfulness, humility and kindness”, said the company’s president and publisher, Michael Morrison.

The service comes just one day after Lee’s attorney said she had died in her sleep on Friday at age 89 in her hometown of Monroeville. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said, “Lee had a way of telling stories that does have an influence and resonates with so many Americans”. She remained in good basic health until her passing. Or when he explains to her why it’s important to do the right thing by defending Tom Robinson: “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand….”

“We obeyed her wishes”, said Jackie Stovall, Lee’s second cousin. “Name one that really has had more of an impact on Americans than that book”.

The Rev. Thomas Butts, who had known Lee since the early 1980s, said she had a bright personality that could “light up a room”.

Monroeville, a city of about 6,300 located 90 miles north of Mobile, is where Lee and childhood friend Truman Capote spent summer days together, much as Lee’s character Scout Finch and her friend Dill did. This is not Atticus as portrayed in To Kill a Mockingbird, both the book and the film, where he was played by Gregory Peck in an Oscar-winning role; here he is racist, a segregationist who asks his daughter: “Do you want Negroes by the carload in our schools and churches and theatres?”

Tim McKenzie, chairman of the museum’s board of directors, said some visitors just come and sit in the courtroom.