Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28 1926 in Monroeville Alabama, a city of about 7,000 people in Monroe County, which has about 24,000 people. Monroeville is in southwest Alabama, about halfway between Montgomery and Mobile. She is the youngest of four children of Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Finch Lee. Harper Lee attended Huntingdon College 1944-45, studied law at University of Alabama 1945-49, and studied one year at Oxford University. In the 1950s she worked as a …showed first 75 words of 497 total…

…showed last 75 words of 497 total…not speak or give an interview. In 1997 she was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters at Spring Hill College in Mobile Alabama. Professor Margaret Davis told Miss Lee she was being honored for her "lyrical elegance, her portrayal of human strength, and wisdom." Miss Lee did not speak to the cheering and applauding audience; Coleman McCarthy, another degree recipient did. A photograph of a radiant Miss Lee appeared in the Mobile Register on May 12, 1997.