Harper Lee Is Memorialized as She Lived: Quietly and Privately

New York Times, February 20th, 2016

Friends and family from around the corner and across the country gathered here on Saturday to pay final respects to Harper Lee, the author whose Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about racial inequality in the South during the Jim Crow era inspired generations of readers.

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

The relatively small guest list of perhaps 40 people included nephews and other relatives of the publicity-shy author, as well as friends from her hometown and places afar like New York City, where she once lived and had written her celebrated book, “To Kill a Mockingbird.”