Things to Do
Harper Lee's hometown honors her memory and penchant for privacy
Black ribbons on the doors of the old Monroe County Courthouse, now the Heritage Museum, hang in memory of Harper Lee. Photos: Jennifer Brett
MONROEVILLE, ALA. - Black ribbons bloomed across the Monroe County Courthouse Square soon after
Friday’s news that Harper Lee had died, a sad garden uniting the community in grief.
Black ribbons on the doors of the old Monroe County Courthouse, now the Heritage Museum, hang in memory of Harper Lee. Photos: Jennifer Brett
Ol’ Curiosities & Book Shoppe, just off the square, was draped in mourning, too. Inside, owner Spencer Madrie also spoke of the local wariness, provoked anew, as a national spotlight once again sears the tiny hometown of the famously private author.
“Have you had any luck talking to people?” Madrie asked, in a tone that suggested he suspected not. “It can be a real quiet town.”
Spencer Madrie plans a public gathering at his bookstore right off the Monroe County Courthouse Square. Photos: Jennifer Brett
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For much of the day Friday, the courthouse square seemed to be full of reporters and local residents all suggesting they talk to someone else. One courthouse employee pointed out another, noting he was a native well-versed in local history. When asked, the local son said he’d rather not comment. He pointed out a number of law offices flanking the square, then said never mind; the barristers probably wouldn’t want to talk, either.
Rabun Williams had no interest - none whatsoever! he stressed - in talking to a reporter, but relented, sinking into a rocking chair as the sun started to set Friday evening. Like so many others he named someone else, an elderly repository of local history, who’d be a font of information, then noted, “he’s not doing any interviews.”
Rabun Williams once got a signed copy of "To Kill a Mockingbird" for the late AJC columnist Celestine Sibley. Photos: Jennifer Brett
Pondering his plans for the evening, Williams wondered with alarm if reporters would be crawling all over a popular courthouse square restaurant that night seeking comments, pesky ants ruining the locals’ picnic. He could not resist sharing a memory about the time he procured a signed copy of “Mockingbird” for the late Celestine Sibley years ago, but then returned to the topic of his town’s penchant for clamming up.
“J.K. Rowling came last year,” he said, adding that the “Harry Potter” series author swore the local teen who recognized her to silence. “Sandra Bullock was in town. They kept that quiet, too.”
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