- Made a rare appearance at the insistence of her friend Veronique Peck, widow of Gregory Peck. She was honored by the Los Angeles Public Library at a benefit dinner to raise funds for computers and literacy programs. The award was presented by Brock Peters, who portrayed the black man falsely accused of rape in the film To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). (May 2005)
- Was Truman Capote's personal assistant when he went to Garden City, Kansas, to investigate the Clutter murders in Holcomb, Kansas - which became his bestselling book, "In Cold Blood," and at least two films: In Cold Blood (1967) and In Cold Blood (1996). Lee and Capote were childhood friends.
- Her book, "To Kill a Mockingbird," was banned from advanced placement English courses in Lindale, Texas, in 1996, because it "conflicted with the values of the community".
- Her second published novel, "Go Set A Watchman," was actually the first one she wrote. In it, Scout and Jem, the main characters from her first published novel, "To Kill A Mockingbird," are already adults. When she first presented it to her agent, he told her the characters were interesting, but the story was not. She was instructed to write about the characters when they were younger. The result was her first published novel, "To Kill A Mockingbird," which was made into the film To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). The discovery of the manuscript for "Go Set A Watchman" in late 2014, resulted in investigations by the State of Alabama, into whether she was mentally competent to consent to it being published. Despite suffering from a stroke and macular degeneration, she repeatedly said yes.
- (March 2008 - 2014) She lived with her sister and attorney, Alice Finch Lee, in Monroeville, Alabama, until Alice Lee's death in 2014 at age 103.
- Her novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
- Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on November 6, 2007 by President George W. Bush.
- She was awarded the 2010 National Medal of the Arts for her services to literature.
- She was portrayed by Catherine Keener in Capote (2005) - who received an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress for the role - and by Sandra Bullock in Infamous (2006).
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