‘Mockingbird’ Author Harper Lee Buried in Alabama Hometown

Author Harper Lee, who led a mostly quiet life after the publication of her 1960 classic of American literature To Kill a Mockingbird, was laid to rest yesterday following a private memorial service at a church in her Alabama hometown, her attorney said. “Harper Lee was ahead of her time and her masterpiece “To Kill a Mockingbird” prodded America to catch up with her”, he said.

“You would see her around, but still we would honour her wishes of being a very private person”.

A dense fog that had shrouded this small town lifted as mourners filed into the First United Methodist Church, which Lee had attended for many years, for a simple, private service that lasted about two hours.

The eulogy was the speech Flynt wrote in 2006 entitled “Atticus inside ourselves”, as a tribute when Lee won the Birmingham Pledge Foundation Award for racial justice.

“She controlled what world she wanted to live in”, said Joy Brown, a close friend from NY who, with her husband, financed Lee’s writing pursuits during the period when she wrote Mockingbird.

Actor Gregory Peck and novelist Harper Lee on the movie set of the film To Kill A Mockingbird in 1962.

In the first book, Atticus Finch was the adored father of his daughter, Jean Louise Finch or Scout, the narrator, and a lawyer who attempted to defend a black man unjustly accused of raping a white woman but failed in doing so.

Bush, who awarded Lee a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007, said she had been a voice for tolerance.

The southern Alabama town of Monroeville seems destined to always be linked to Nelle Harper Lee.

Spencer Madrie, owner of the Ol’ Curiosities & Book Shoppe dedicated to the work of Lee and other Southern authors, said Monroeville was in a somber mood. But as Scout’s favourite Uncle Jack tells her, “Every man’s island, every man’s watchman, is his conscience”, just like her father did when she was little, and that’s Harper Lee’s biggest legacy: inculcating a deep sense of right and wrong in every individual.

The novel sold 30 million copies and earned Lee huge critical acclaim, winning her a Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and thrusting her into an avalanche of publicity. “It is the greatest American novel”.

A family statement said: “With great sadness, Ms Lee passed away in her sleep early this morning”.

The country is mourning the loss of one of the most influential authors of our time. “They made my stay here in Monroeville much better than it would have been”. Flynt said Lee was “savagely witty”.

“This is beyond the borders of Monroe County and Monroeville itself”, Anton said of Lee’s death. YouTube user and blogger HarperLeeSpeaks was present and writes, “She wasn’t really a recluse, she just didn’t like fame”.

CBS 2’s Vince Gerasole takes a look at her life and the book that’s touched generations. “She was quoting Thomas More and setting me straight on Tudor history”.