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Author's Note: I went to Alabama three times to do research on the Harper Lee biography for young readers. This week’s blog is mostly about the first time I traveled to Alabama with my sister, Keely Madden, in the spring of 2007. In her hometown, Harper Lee is often referred to as “Nelle.”
Miss Alice is the older sister of Harper Lee who still works three days a week at the law office in Monroeville, Alabama. She will be 98 on September 11th. I had contacted her about an interview, and I received a call from her secretary on our first morning in Monroeville. The secretary said that Miss Alice would not be talking to me out respect for her sister. I said that I understood, and I asked if I might bring my children's novels to the law office, which was located in a bank building off the town square. The secretary said that would be fine and that she would be there all day.
Our plan was to drop my children's books off with the secretary to give to the Lee sisters and then leave immediately. Maybe they would see from my books (akin to Little House on the Prairie and Anne of Green Gables) that I wasn't out to write a sensational biography. Yet, when we arrived at the law office about an hour later, the secretary was no where around. Only Miss Alice Lee was there. I was terrified, and so was my sister, Keely. Miss Alice is also deaf and so did not hear us. We stood in the hallway within her sight range debating what to do. I felt sick to my stomach.
After a few tense moments of deliberating, we just decided to leave the books on the secretary's desk. It was then Miss Alice Lee looked up and saw us. Her white hair up in neat bun, she wore a lavender suit and tennis shoes. A flash of concern crossed her face, and I explained who we were and that we were not staying but only wanted to drop off the books. She looked at me carefully and said, "I will give these books to my sister, Nelle Harper, but she is suffering from macular degeneration and cannot read them."
I said, "They are for you too." Then she smiled and we said good-bye.
We got outside and breathed in the warm April sunshine, our hearts pounding. We later learned that there is a saying in the town of Monroeville: "If you don't know something, go ask Alice." She's been working at the law office since 1943.
Tomorrow: George Thomas Jones' memories and a story of Truman Capote.
Kerry Madden, 
Harper Lee: Up Close, 
Viking Children's Books, 
Penguin Books
Miss Alice
My Sr. Year in College (Faulkner State) My English thesis was on Ms. Harper's book and it's application to the current and past legal representations of racial minorities in the Southern judicial system. I am from Escambia county just adjacent to Monroville county. I also combined my Photography thesis with the English thesis.
I was able to walk right in to visit Miss Alice and talk with her. She was quite nice and we discussed her father's and her practice and she sent me onto several other people. We spoke of her sister's unwillingness to be in the public eye a little which I could understand being from a political family. Sometimes you want to just say your piece and fade into the woodwork.
I also went to the chamber of commerce and the sweet lady there took me the cemetery where their parents were buried and then around town to other places. She just locked the door and left a note that she would be back shortly. No where but in small town Alabama would anyone do that!
I will always treasure my meeting with Miss Alice and the people I met that day. And the A+ did help me to make President's list!!