Trailblazing lawyer Alice Lee, sister of To Kill a Mockingbird author, dies at 103
Alice Lee, one of the first women to practice law in Alabama and the sister of To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee, died Monday in Monroeville, Alabama. She was 103.
Lee was born Sept. 11, 1911, and grew up in Monroeville. In the early 1930s, she worked at a newspaper her father had purchased, and in 1937, became employed at the IRS in Birmingham in the newly created Social Security division. Lee began to attend night classes at the Birmingham School of Law in 1939, and in 1943 graduated and passed the bar exam.
She joined her father's law firm, Barnett, Bugg, and Lee, as partner and became an expert in tax law. Lee was also a devoted volunteer, one of the first to give 500 hours of service at the Monroe County Hospital. She was a devout churchgoer, too, and in 1992, the Alabama-West Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church established the Alice Lee Award for outstanding women leaders in the church.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
At the age of 100, she was still practicing law, the oldest attorney in Alabama — and likely the entire country. She reflected on her life in a 2011 interview with the Press-Register: "I would consider I've had a good life. A good life to me is one that has been happy, one that has been productive. Things I have done have been good for other people. I've tried to be a good citizen in my community."
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
'Make legal immigration a more plausible option'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
LA-to-Las Vegas high-speed rail line breaks ground
Speed Read The railway will be ready as soon as 2028
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Israel's military intelligence chief resigns
Speed Read Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva is the first leader to quit for failing to prevent the Hamas attack in October
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
ATF finalizes rule to close 'gun show loophole'
Speed Read Biden moves to expand background checks for gun buyers
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Hong Kong passes tough new security law
Speed Read It will allow the government to further suppress all forms of dissent
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
France enshrines abortion rights in constitution
speed read It became the first country to make abortion a constitutional right
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Texas executes man despite contested evidence
Speed Read Texas rejected calls for a rehearing of Ivan Cantu's case amid recanted testimony and allegations of suppressed exculpatory evidence
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Supreme Court wary of state social media regulations
Speed Read A majority of justices appeared skeptical that Texas and Florida were lawfully protecting the free speech rights of users
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Greece legalizes same-sex marriage
Speed Read Greece becomes the first Orthodox Christian country to enshrine marriage equality in law
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Trump and his lawyer Alina Habba have a rough day in defamation court
Speed Read Trump's audible grousing as E. Jean Carroll testified earned him a warning he could be thrown out of court, and Habba showed she 'doesn't know what the hell she's doing'
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Anders Breivik to testify in prison isolation lawsuit against Norway
Speed Read Far-right fanatic who killed 77 people in 2011 claims he has received 'inhuman treatment' in custody
By The Week UK Published