Lee, the elusive author of best-seller “To Kill a Mockingbird”, died Friday, Feb. 19, according to her publisher Harper Collins. 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.
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The funeral service was held at First United Methodist Church in Monroeville on Saturday, with history professor Wayne Flynt, a long-time friend, delivering the eulogy.
Flynt said Lee liked the speech so much that she wanted him to give it as her eulogy. Even though the literary genius has passed away, her writings and wonderful words remain, keeping her alive with us.
You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… The novel was adapted into a Hollywood film which won three Oscars in 1963, including the best actor award for Gregory Peck for his portrayal of Finch, one of the best-loved characters in American fiction.
Mockingbirds chirped and frolicked among blooming camellia bushes outside the courthouse on a warm Alabama morning that teased the early arrival of spring. Her librarian handler at university events called her “just a very regular woman” and said talking with her was “like spending time with an aunt”.
In an email to The Associated Press, award-winning historian Isabel Wilkerson said that Lee had created two equally worthy legacies.
The town this summer had a celebration for the release of “Go Set a Watchman” – Lee’s initial draft of the story that would become “Mockingbird” – even though many residents had ambivalent feelings about its release. The novel is often on the list of books read in school, and some people revisit the story later in life when they’re an adult.
Go Set a Watchman is a more complex book than Mockingbird, and perhaps far more reflective of the world around us.
In the book, we were given “lifelong” friends such as Scout, Jem, Dill Harris (fashioned on Truman Capote, childhood friend of Lee or Nelle as she was known in Monroeville, Alabama, where she lived) and the shy Boo Radley, of course, the children’s reclusive friend.
However, Lee, for years was largely unseen in her hometown, as she first sought privacy and then was secluded at an assisted living home. ‘She changed the world with ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’. Flynt said Lee was “savagely witty”.
It’s common knowledge in Monroeville that Lee did not like to talk about “Mockingbird“.
Though, in Lee’s passing, she left behind a question about her book that might never be answered.
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“I think to kill a mockingbird will be read for ever and ever”, Theroux said. “But I would like her to say, ‘I’m Scout'”. “That was a book about her dad”.
