In Monroeville, neighbors continue to protect Harper Lee

MONROEVILLE-- Hours after the news spread of Harper Lee’s death the community quietly began to mourn.

Black bows were placed on the front door of Monroe County Heritage Museum, a nod to the literary great who made the building famous.

A single bouquet of red tulips lies on a statue of three children reading “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

“The local people who knew (Lee) will certainly be affected,” said Nathan Carter, director of sites at Monroe County Heritage Museum. “We will all be mourning her.”

Harper won national acclaim with her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, making the town a destination spot for its commemoration of the book.

Despite the clamor that surrounded Lee and Monroeville since the novel’s rise to fame, locals have always tried to protect her privacy.

“I’ve seen the agony that all this media attention has caused, what it’s done to those families, said Steve Stacey, a Monroeville native. “It’s like you can’t go anywhere without someone asking you about Harper Lee.”

But to people who have spent their lives in Monroeville she wasn’t Harper Lee. She was Nelle.

And after word spread Friday of her death, locals say that protection of Harper’s wishes will go on.

“The folks from here will continue to protect her privacy,” said Nancy Torrey, who grew up in Monroeville. “We all saw (Lee) and we all knew her family. It’s a respect thing with us.”

That respect for Lee, for letting her go about her business without intruding, is ingrained in the community.

“People would ask you where she lived and you’d say you don’t know,” said Loretta McKenzie.

Even when actors involved in the filming of "To Kill a Mockingbird" visited Monroeville, the town's residents paid no mind.

“They didn’t even get excited when Gregory Peck (who played Atticus Finch) came to Monroeville and sat in the old tiny diner with (Lee),” Stacey said.

It was custom. Unless you were one of the ones who pretended to know Lee, that is.

“I’ll tell you what my dad said. If everybody had attended Monroeville High School in her class as they claim to have, we wouldn’t have had any room,” Stacey said. “I think people went crazy around here, and a lot of them are not native.

“If you read the interviews after the book came out, the people talking weren’t from Monroeville. They flocked to a camera around here like a fly to a light.”

But for the people who grew up around Lee - whether they knew her intimately or just smiled politely when they saw her around town - her death marks a loss that cannot be measured.

“You can’t even calculate what she meant to the community,” Stacey said.