Nelle Harper Lee (1926 - 2016)

Born 28 Apr 1926 in Monroeville, Monroe, Alabama, United States

Ancestors

Died 19 Feb 2016 at age 89 in Monroeville, Monroe, Alabama, United States

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Biography

Harper Lee is Notable.

Father Amasa Cole “A.C.” Lee

Mother Frances Cunningham Finch Lee

Nelle Harper Lee, daughter of Amasa Cole “A.C.” Lee and Frances Cunningham Finch Lee, was born April 28, 1926 at Monroeville, Alabama. Nelle was the youngest of four children: Alice (b. 1911), Francis (b. 1916), and Edwin (b. 1920).

Nelle was a rebellious child, but she did have a good friend next door; Truman Streckfus Persons, later Truman Capote, after his mother remarried. In high school she was fortunate to have a gifted English teacher, Gladys Watson-Burkett, who challenged her to read fine literature and become an extraordinary writer.

She spent her freshman year of college at Huntingdon College, a Methodist school for women in Montgomery, but transferred to the University of Alabama in 1945. Despite her father’s hopes that she would become an attorney like her older sister Alice and practice in Monroeville, Nelle went to New York in 1949 to become a writer.

To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960 to highly favorable reviews and quickly climbed the bestseller lists to where it remained for over 80 weeks. In 1961, the novel was awarded the Pulitzer prize. A film adaptation was released in 1962 starring Gregory Peck and received three Academy Awards.

She went on to write additional successful novels and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007.^[1]. However, she remained a very private person, living out her life in her hometown.^[2]

She died 19 February 2016 in Monroeville, Alabama.^[3][4][5] "Ms. Lee never married or had children, and the court papers identified her heirs and closest living relatives as a niece and three nephews, who are expected to receive an undisclosed portion of the estate through the trust"^[6].

In 2019, she was posthumously inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame^[7]

Sources

1. ↑ Encyclopedia Britannica
2. ↑ Wikipedia: Harper Lee
3. ↑ Obituary, The Guardian, Feb 19 2016
4. ↑ Los Angeles Times, Feb 19 2016
5. ↑ Obituary of her sister Alice Lee, Los Angeles Times, Nov 23, 2014
6. ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/27/books/harper-lee-will.html#:~:text=Ms.%20Lee%20never%20married%20or,the%20estate%20through%20the%20trust. Subscription required to read
7. ↑ Alabama Women's Hall of Fame

• Roberts, Gary Boyd, David Curtis Dearborn, John Anderson Brayton, Richard E. Brenneman, and John Anderson Brayton. “‘Hollywood Gothic’ and the Alabama Three.” Essay. In Notable Kin: An Anthology of Columns First Published in the Nehgs Nexus, 1986-1995 2, 2:156–65. Published in cooperation with the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts, by Carl Boyer, 3rd, 1999.
• Find A Grave: Memorial #158340016 Retrieved 22 sep 2016.
• Wikidata: Item Q182658