The loss of famed author Harper Lee hit closer to home for two former Auburn professors.
Lee, 89, died in her sleep in her hometown of Monroeville on Friday, Feb. 19.
Wayne Flynt, professor emeritus of history and author of several books about Alabama history and culture, was a friend of Lee's. They met through Lee's sister, Louise Connor. He said they would go to Georgia to eat soul food.
"My wife and I fell in love with (Lee), and she came to tolerate us," Flynt said.
Lee's 1960 book, "To Kill a Mockingbird," won a Pulitzer Prize and became influential during and after the Civil Rights movement.
Flynt and Lee wrote letters back and forth through the years. They talked about a myriad of topics, from religion to state and national politics.
"We share a common revulsion at Roy Moore, for instance," Flynt said.
He said she loved C.S. Lewis in particular and was a devout Christian who believed in civility and justice.
"Her style was to walk the walk," Flynt said.
Flynt spoke at Lee's funeral. He presented a speech he made for her 10 years earlier for the Birmingham Pledge Foundation Award for Racial Justice. He said the experience was "terrifying" because she specifically requested him to deliver that speech.
"She said, 'I don't want any other preacher there but you,'" Flynt said.
Over the years, Flynt would make public appearances for Lee. However, it was not because she was reclusive, according to Flynt, but she was a private person who "inhabited the world of mythology" since childhood.
"The world could worship her from afar; it didn't have to be up close," Flynt said.
Flynt said Lee didn't care what the public thought of her.
"The idea that she somehow depended on me was just not true," Flynt said.
Flynt said Lee was an avid Alabama fan, and one of her treasured memories was a lunch with legendary coach Bear Bryant.
"He was as impressed with her as she was with him," Flynt said.
Though Flynt accepted many awards on Lee's behalf, there was one she wanted to receive in person. A couple of years after her stroke, she accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom from George W. Bush.
"On the arm if a fine young Marine, she walked for just about the only time since her stroke," Flynt said.
Ed Williams, professor emeritus of journalism and faculty adviser of The Auburn Plainsman for 23 years, met Lee at the 2003 induction of the Alabama Academy of Honor. Williams grew up in Conecuh County, which neighbors Lee's home in Monroe County.
"I respected her reclusive nature and that she wanted to be left alone," Williams said in an email. "Just like Boo Radley."
He said she was not the loner he expected, but friendly and outgoing and interested in his career as a journalist.
"She seemed amazed and thought it was funny when I told her that I clipped and saved articles about her and kept them in a box," Williams said. "'You ought to burn them,' she laughed."
Flynt said Lee loved Alabama, and even wrote passages for his books about Alabama history and culture.
"We developed a beautiful end-of-life friendship," Flynt said.
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