1 MAUD McLURE KELLY AWARD LUNCHEON GUEST OF HONOR - MS. ALICE LEE Friday, July 18, 2003 12:00 noon Adams Mark Hotel, Mobile, Alabama Agenda Welcome - Ms. Dawn Wiggins Hare Invocation/Blessing - Rev. Gorman Houston Introduction of Guest Speaker - Ms. Kathy Coxwell Speaker - Dr. Thomas Lane Butts Guest of Honor - Ms. Alice Finch Lee Presentation of Award - Ms. Dawn Wiggins Hare and Ms. Martha Jane Patton CART Reporter - Debra Amos Isbell, CSR,RDR,CRR 2 * * * * * MR. HOLMES: I just want to say hello. I'm Broox Holmes. It's good to see you. Congratulations. I can't stay for the thing, but anyway, I wanted to see you, Cousin. * * * * * A MAN: Hello, Miss Alice. How is my favorite local lawyer in Monroeville? I'd hug your neck if I could reach over. MS. LEE: I can't hear. A MAN: I know. But do you remember helping me on that case for the Monroe County Bank many years ago? MS. LEE: Yes. A MAN: It's good to see you again. MS. LEE: So glad to see you. A MAN: I haven't been in trouble over in your county for the last 25 years or I would have called you up. MS. LEE: I'm still going to the office every day. A MAN: I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised. 3 MS. LEE: I don't know how to do anything else. A MAN: (Laughing.) Well, it is a joy to see you. MS. LEE: How is Birmingham? A MAN: Well, I moved down -- it's fine, I understand. But about 12 or 13 years ago I moved down to Daphne and am working out of my Mobile office. You're putting her on realtime? This is very high tech. I'm glad to see you're keeping up. You look wonderful. You look wonderful. I'm so happy to see you. Before I leave, if you don't get a huge crowd around you, I want to introduce you to my wife. Okay? MS. LEE: I'd love to meet her. A MAN: Thank you. Thank you. MS. LEE: I'll be around. A MAN: Yes, ma'am. Thank you. * * * * * MS. HARE: Good morning. If I could have your attention just briefly and we'll get started. I want to thank you all for coming on behalf of the Women's Section of the Alabama Bar. We are very happy 4 to have our second annual Maud McLure Kelly Luncheon. We're hoping this is the event of the Alabama State Bar. We're edging our way that way. We are very happy about our honoree today, and we'll let you hear a little bit about her later. First of all, I want to share with you just a few thoughts about Maud McLure Kelly and then we'll have our invocation and let you begin eating. Maud McLure Kelly was the first woman to graduate from the University of Alabama School of Law. She was the first woman to practice law in the state of Alabama and she was the first woman from the southern states to be admitted to practice and indeed argue a case before the United States Supreme Court. We felt it was appropriate that in the award that we had chosen as the Women's Section to honor women that were pioneers in the state of Alabama to practice law and be leaders in all fields but most especially in the legal field; that we would name this award after a true lady that had been a pioneer for our state and for women's rights in this state. With that said, I would like to introduce to you the Reverend Gorman Houston who will say our 5 blessing for us. REV. HOUSTON: Thank you, Dawn. Let's bow our heads. Good Father, You delight us every day and surprise us at every turn. You care for us in splendid ways, and indeed we're grateful for the beauty of this day and for the joy of this gathering, for the bountiful blessings of life, for the warmth of friendship, for souls set on the pursuit of justice, for a place to call home and a vineyard in which to work. We give You thanks for it all. And especially this day we're thankful for Your wonderful Providence in raising up among us those who cast bold visions and who hold grand hopes, who live with unbashful expectations and who seek a better world for all Your children, who rise above petty concerns and who give themselves to noble causes, who pursue high standards of justice and who kindle in all of us the highest and noblest and best. We gather here today to praise You as we honor Your servant Alice Lee for her heart of compassion, her concern for the poor, her courage to enter the fray, her deep-rooted, life-shaping faith, 6 her uncompromising integrity, for her sharp insight, her right use of privilege, her unrelenting pursuit of justice. For her life and her witness we are indeed grateful. We thank You for those who helped shape her life and we thank You for the way in which You have touched her life through them and the way in which she has touched our lives. You have called forth greatness from one so small. You have summoned strength from one so frail. You have spoken Your word boldly through this feminine voice with southern accents, and we thank You. We thank You for her life and for the way she has lived it for Your grand purpose and to Your higher glory. Continue to bless well this child of Yours. Continue to use her word and witness to bless well this state of ours. And now be present at our table, Lord. Be here and everywhere adored. Thy children bless and grant that we may live in peace with Thee. Amen. MS. HARE: Thank you, Gorman. Please take this time to enjoy your meal and get started, and then we'll break you up for further activities in just a minute. Thank you. 7 * * * * * MS. COXWELL: Please continue to enjoy your lunch. I'm Kathy Coxwell. And everybody knows Dawn. The first person who spoke to you was our great president, Dawn Hare, who is also an attorney in Monroeville and is rotating off as president this year. And we have our new president elect, Martha Jane Patton, who is seated here on the end. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank each of you for coming to this very special occasion. It is always a special occasion when we present the Maud McLure Kelly Award. But this year for those of us who are from Monroeville it is truly, truly a wonderful day. And we thank all of you who came all this way from Monroeville just for this occasion. And I'm sure that Miss Alice is delighted that she has so many of her family and friends here with us today. I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce to you some of the honored guests that we have both here at the head table and in our audience. Here to my left we have Mr. Fred Gray, who is presently the president of the Alabama Bar Association, and his lovely wife, Carol. And we 8 appreciate their being with us. We also have, of course, the Reverend Gorman Houston who gave such a beautiful prayer earlier, and then Dawn and, of course, our wonderful guest of honor, Miss Alice Lee. And for those of you who are back here, we're going to try to move this so you'll be able to see her in a few minutes. We tried to put her on stilts, but that didn't work. Then next to her we have somebody who is truly, truly giving a gift of love today, and that is Debbie Isbell. If you ever need a wonderful court reporter in Mobile or somebody you want to import to Monroeville, you be sure and call her. She is doing the immediate transcription so that Miss Alice -- who is, of course, hearing impaired -- can hear by reading everything as it is said. And we do thank her so much for giving this gift to us and to Miss Alice. As she said, "It is my pleasure to be with you and be your ears for today." We thank you. (APPLAUSE.) MS. COXWELL: Seated next to Debbie is our speaker who's going to introduce our guest of honor. And I'll have more to say about him in a minute. Have 9 I ever waited a long time for this. (LAUGHING.) MS. COXWELL: And then, of course, next to him is Martha Jane Patton. And seated next to Martha Jane is one of our past presidents and one of our newest circuit judges, Judge Caryl Privett from Birmingham. We'd like to give all of these people a hand. (APPLAUSE.) MS. COXWELL: We'd like to recognize also some of our judges that we have here in the audience and some of our other special guests: Judge Sharon Yates from the Court of Appeals, Judge Pam Baschab from the Court of Appeals, Judge Robert Kendall from the District Court in Mobile -- Circuit. Excuse me. Well, I was just trying to elevate you, put you on up there. I guess that's on up there. Judge Jean Brown right here, Justice Lyn Stuart. And we like to claim Justice Stuart because Justice Stuart used to clerk for our firm when she was just a young wet-behind- the-ears law student. And Milton claims he taught her everything she knows. (LAUGHING.) 10 MS. COXWELL: We have Judge Sam Welch, who is our Circuit judge from Monroeville, and Justice Bernard Harwood. We also have the new incoming president of the Alabama Bar Association, Mr. Bob Clark -- Bill Clark. Excuse me. Way to go, Dawn. (LAUGHING.) MS. COXWELL: And finally we have someone who has come all the way from Chicago, chickens in the car, the car won't go, that's how you spell Chicago. And her name is Marja Mills, and she is with the Chicago Tribune. And so be careful what you say because she's taking it all down. (LAUGHING.) MS. COXWELL: And then we also are fortunate to have Reverend Gorman Houston's parents with us, Justice and Mrs. Gorman Houston. When I read the list of things that Dawn told me I had to do, I wasn't expecting to be the person who was going to introduce our speaker today. But when I saw it, the first thing I thought is: What in the world am I going to say about him that I can say in front of people? (LAUGHING.) 11 MS. COXWELL: And then I started thinking about it, and I thought: Well, there are lots of pretty good stories I might be able to tell. But before I introduce him, I'd like to tell you just very briefly about my particular relationship with our guest of honor. When Miss Alice made a decision a few years ago after her hearing had begun to deteriorate to such an extent that normal hearing-aid devices were not really doing her any good, she decided to opt for a cochlear implant. Now, for those of you who don't understand what this involves, it means that what little residual hearing you might have had left will be gone. You will be in a completely soundless world. In order to prepare Miss Alice for this, I was fortunate enough, because I have a background in one of my former careers -- I'm one of these people who's still trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up. I worked with the hearing impaired and taught at the School for the Deaf. So Miss Alice and I had the chance to get together several times a week so that I could help her learn to speech read. Now, I will tell you I have had lots of students, both 12 hearing and hearing impaired, in my career. But I have never had one who was, as they say, as apt a pupil as Miss Alice was. She made a very courageous decision. She was not -- if you'll pardon the expression, Miss Alice -- a spring chicken when she made that decision. When many people would have gone to the house and not done anything, Miss Alice continued to soldier on. And so if I have to say anything about her, it is that she is a tough, courageous, wonderful person, and I would not take anything for the hours that I was able to spend with her. She is a walking encyclopedia of knowledge of just about any subject in the world. And if you ever go to visit her, you will have to crawl over the stacks of books to get to the chair where you can sit down and talk to her. If you ever have that opportunity, it would behoove you all to do that. Now, as for our speaker for today, the Reverend Thomas Lane Butts, also known as Tommy Lane, Reverend Butts has been from A to Z in his career. He grew up in Conecuh County, as he is often wanting to say both in his sermons and in his speeches. He is a 13 speaker of some renown. He is our pastor emeritus in Monroeville, but he's never there. He is always off talking to some group or some church somewhere in the United States. He does not limit himself just to the Southeast. So if any of you are interested in hiring him to come and speak, if you'll see me later on, I will take my percentage off the top and then we'll see what we can work out. (LAUGHING.) MS. COXWELL: As I said, trying to recall a story that I could tell about Dr. Butts, the first Sunday that he appeared at our church -- let me back up just a little bit and say that Dr. Butts has spent all of his life as a Methodist. But he's a frustrated Episcopalian. (LAUGHING.) MS. COXWELL: And he sometimes has a habit of wearing his collar back to front. And on this particular occasion we were having a little reception for him down in the fellowship hall. And that Sunday I don't know who he was trying to impress. I think he thought he was maybe down at Christ Church or somewhere in Mobile. But he came to church and he had 14 on his collar like a priest would wear. And at the time my daughter was fairly young. I'm trying to think. That's been awhile. And she came running out to us. We were coming in. She said -- she had been in the fellowship hall and seen him. She came running in: Mama, Mama, he's Catholic. (LAUGHING.) MS. COXWELL: You know, preachers tend to get a hold of people and keep them sitting there until you just can't stand it anymore. But I'm going to say this about Tom Butts: He is a preacher that no matter how long he speaks or what he has to say, you are never so tired that you want him to quit. And without further ado, I give you the Reverend Thomas Lane Butts. (APPLAUSE.) REV. BUTTS: Madam chairperson, honorable judges, members of the Bar, honored guests and friends, and Kathy Coxwell, my dear friend who is often in error but seldom in doubt. (LAUGHING.) REV. BUTTS: If you were to park in front of the Monroe County Bank Building in Monroeville, 15 Alabama, on any weekday morning, at 8 o'clock sharp you would see a plain blue eight-year-old Chevrolet pull up into the handicapped parking lot nearest the front door of the building. You would next see the driver take out a handicapped walker from the back seat and go to the passenger door and assist a white-haired wisp of a woman from the car to the sidewalk and then try to keep up with her as she makes her way on that walker to the door. The small lady with the walker would be dressed in a conservative but elegant business suit and would be wearing Reebok shoes. This dignified 91-year-old woman in the Reeboks is on her way to her office, as she has been for each working day since 1944 when she was a spry 33 year old. She was a rare curiosity in Monroeville and in Alabama back then -- a woman lawyer, Miss Alice Finch Lee, the person you have shown the good judgment to honor today with the second annual Maud McLure Kelly award. Now, let me tell you something about the journey of this unusual woman, who is the uncontested, quiet queen of the courthouse, the Methodist Church, and the community where she lives. She is not only 16 loved and cared for as a gentle woman and sought after as legal counsel for her broad spectrum of wisdom and experience in the law, she is also known as a very knowledgeable person in history and literature and current events. She is a voracious reader. She reads three daily newspapers: The New York Times Book Review, British publications such as the Spectator, the Times Literary Supplement and the Weekly Telegraph. She reads several American magazines, several hundred book pages (mostly history and biographies) and The Monroe Journal every week. (LAUGHING.) REV. BUTTS: When someone wants to know the history of a piece of property in Monroe County or the source of some quote or a literary or historical fact, knowledgeable people in Monroeville will say: Go ask Alice. She is a veritable library of wisdom and information. Now, the recitation of a standard curriculum vitae does not adequately describe Miss Alice, but without it you would miss some of the interesting events in her life. So let me offer an abbreviated and an annotated curriculum vitae for you today. 17 Alice Finch Lee was the first born in a family of four children, born to Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Finch Lee. She was born in Bonifay, Florida, on September the 11th, 1911, and she describes herself as the only alien-born member of her family and one who she says at this end of her life is stuck with a birthday now remembered in infamy, September the 11th. Her family moved to Monroeville, Alabama, when she was less than two years of age. Miss Alice graduated from Monroe County High School in 1928 at the age of 16. She attended Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama, in the academic years 1928 and '29. Two factors brought her home at the end of her first year, the beginning of the Great Depression and her father's purchase of The Monroe Journal. She worked at that newspaper for seven years, and during that time she said she did all of the things that it takes to run a newspaper. In April of 1937 she went to Birmingham to work for the Internal Revenue Service in the newly created social security division. From 1939 to '43 she attended night school at Birmingham School of Law. She took the Bar examination in July 1943, and 18 when she knew that she had passed the Bar, she began trying to get released from her job with the IRS. It was not easy to get released from a government job during the war. But by January 1944 she had been released and she came back to Monroeville to practice law with her father (who has always been her idol and role model) in the law firm of Barnett, Bugg and Lee, where she still practices today. I asked Alice how she fared for clients as a neophyte woman lawyer. She explained that in those days a small-town lawyer had to take any case that walked through the door. But she said, however, the federal income tax people created something called the victory tax. It had just become law. All income over $600 became taxable, and people who had never filed a federal income tax return now had to file. There was no CPA in Monroeville. Only four lawyers. And since it was commonly known that Miss Alice had worked for seven years for the IRS, people assumed that she was well versed in income tax law. They did not know that her work with the IRS had been in the social security division and that she had never filled out an income tax return other than her own. 19 (LAUGHING.) REV. BUTTS: Tax clients poured in. Miss Alice studied the tax code by night and did tax returns by day. She became the tax lady. By the way, Miss Alice stopped taking tax clients 25 years ago, and she has outlived nearly all of her oldest tax clients. I think there's only one who's 96 that's still ahead of her. Miss Alice has practiced every kind of law but claims that her favorite law practice is real estate. And even though she specifically avoided criminal cases, she once got caught in a situation in which she had to try a murder case. I was afraid to ask her what the verdict was, but she told me anyway. "Not bad considering the circumstances." (LAUGHING.) REV. BUTTS: In those days lawyers in Monroeville had to do their own title research. In 60 years of real estate law practice in which she has done almost all of her title work, Miss Alice can recite the history of almost every parcel of land in Monroe County going back to 100 years before her time. 20 Miss Alice has served for many years as a member of the board of directors and as bank attorney for the Monroe County Bank. Her father was instrumental in setting up the special corporation Monroe Industries Corporation, which was the entity that brought the small company which became Vanity Fair to Monroeville. This was a powerful stimulus to the Monroe and surrounding counties for more than a half a century. Miss Alice and her father were on many occasions counsel for Vanity Fair. She was a member of the Monroeville Planning Board for 35 years until her hearing impediment caused her to resign. She also did a great deal of legal work in and for the Alabama River Pulp, which is the primary industry in our local economy now. Miss Alice became the treasurer for the American Red Cross in Monroe County during World War II and remained in that position for many years. And with all of the other work that she was doing, she became the first night Pink Lady at Monroe Hospital to reach 500 hours of service. Miss Alice is a great advocate for the City of Monroeville, and she is one of the primary persons who has helped make Monroeville 21 a place worthy of enthusiastic advocacy. Now I turn for a moment to the area of Miss Alice's life and work with which I am most familiar, the Methodist Church. I have known her work in the church for more than 50 years, during which time she has been a mentor and an encourager to me in the ministry of the church. She has belonged to the Methodist Church all of her adult life. And I asked her when I was interviewing her about this to please tell me the offices that she has served in the church, and she simply said: I've never been the pastor. (LAUGHING.) REV. BUTTS: That essentially describes the extent of her life and work in and for the Methodist Church. But I must tell you this: She has done lots of preaching, her protests not withstanding. And she has preached in a most effective way in that her most prominent way of preaching has been wordless. They say that Saint Francis of Assisi once said to the monks in his order: Let us go into the city and preach, and we will use words if necessary. Although Miss Alice taught an adult Sunday school class for 44 years (until complications with her hearing caused her 22 to lose her nerve of balance), she has always been a person of few words. Miss Alice attended the Alabama-West Florida conference of the Methodist Church as a delegate from her local church for a dozen years before she ever made her first speech on the floor of the conference. It was in the mid '60s when the rhetoric of racism was loud and vitriolic. A committee report concerning the problems about our racially divided church and society had come to the floor. Amendments had been made and debate had started. And the advocates of continued racism were poised and ready to try to drag the church deeper into institutional racism. But before their titular leader could get to the floor, a wee woman from Monroeville, Alabama, got the attention of the presiding officer of the conference. Miss Alice Finch Lee went to the microphone to make her maiden speech to the Alabama-West Florida conference of the Methodist Church. Her speech electrified the 7 or 800 delegates there -- I was there. It consisted of five words. She said: "I move the previous question" and sat down. The conference applauded enthusiastically and voted overwhelmingly to support her motion and 23 then adopted the committee report without further debate. The advocates of racism were left on the sidelines holding their long prepared speeches. Miss Alice became the hero of the conference and from that day on the enemy of the racists. She's always been a person of few words but important words said at the right time and the right place. Miss Alice served as one of the few women members of the Tri-Conference Committee on Merger, which ultimately brought the two white conferences and one African-American conference of the United Methodist Church together. She attended and studied the general conference of the United Methodist Church (which is the lawmaking body of the church that meets every four years) for 12 years before she became a principal delegate to that conference in 1976 and 1980. She served for eight years as a member of the General Council on Ministries and for a number of subcommittees in that agency. She also served as secretary of the Committee on Episcopacy of the Southeastern Jurisdiction of the Methodist Church. This is the committee which assigns bishops to their posts. Not many people get to tell bishops where to 24 go. (LAUGHING.) REV. BUTTS: I asked Miss Alice of how many entities she had been secretary. And she said: I have been secretary to everything and I have enjoyed it all. Miss Alice has been legal counsel to the First Methodist Church of Monroeville since the early '50s. One of her friends asked another friend once: What do you suppose Alice would do if she got to Heaven and found out there were no Methodist committees meeting? The friend said knowingly: She would call one! (LAUGHING.) REV. BUTTS: Like last year's recipient of the Maud McLure Kelly award, the Honorable Janie Ledlow Shores, Miss Alice has been a powerful advocate for women at all levels of our society. Miss Alice's advocacy has been more by example than with words. Let me offer you a few examples of the kind of recognition she has received for her advocacy for women. In 1992 the Alabama-West Florida Conference 25 of the United Methodist Church established the annual Alice Lee award for women who have given outstanding leadership in the United Methodist Church. In 1984 Huntingdon College gave her an honorary Doctor of Laws. And this is interesting. In 1987 the Monroeville Kiwanis Club decided to give a Citizen of the Year award each year instead of a Kiwanian of the Year award. This was several years before women were even accepted as a member of the Kiwanis Club. The first citizen of the year award given by the Kiwanis Club of Monroeville in 1987 was given to Alice Finch Lee. There's another professional honor that she received so recently that I had to rewrite a section of this introduction yesterday in order to include it. She received an invitation to the Supreme Court of Alabama and all the judges of the Court of Criminal Appeals and the Court of Civil Appeals to speak to the 30th Opening of Courts Ceremony in October. Miss Alice regretfully declined the invitation because of physical impediments. Had she accepted, she would have been the first woman lawyer to speak at that event. And I think this certainly reflects the great 26 esteem in which she is held by the people in her profession. Now, these are but a few examples of the powerful influence of this woman of few words who speaks when she's silent and whose presence is felt even after she has left the room. Her courage, integrity and ethics are impeccable. As one who knows her best once said to me: She is Atticus in a skirt. Her love of life and people is very much like that of an old friend of hers who lived 2,000 years ago. She is a person who is always seeking the pearl of great price in a generation that tends to content itself with fake jewelry. Now, I'm not suggesting that Miss Alice is a perfect person. (LAUGHING.) REV. BUTTS: Surely she has some faults. But for the life of me, I cannot remember one right now. You would have to ask her sisters, Nelle Harper and Louise. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once offered a magnanimous statement about Catherine the Great of Russia. He said: Her faults were an infection from the times in which she lived, but her virtues were her 27 own. I borrow this line to describe Alice Finch Lee. Today I want to conclude this introduction with a few words from her long-time friend and law partner John Barnett, III, who handed me a piece of paper a few weeks ago and said: Would you add this to whatever you have to say about Miss Alice at the Bar Association? So here are the quotes of a man who from his childhood has known, loved and respected Miss Alice. This is a quote: "I was often perplexed by the debates in law school about the role of women in law. I was unable to identify either with the archaic male view or the often vitriolic views of the women in my class. This is because all of my life up until that point my personal family and our corporate lawyer was Miss Alice Lee. I knew of no better person or lawyer then or now. She is the epitome of personal and professional ethics and character. In those times that I've fallen short of the standard she has set, she has remained my steadfast advocate and friend." 28 How fitting, John went on to say, that the first convention on the issue of women's rights in America was held in a Methodist Church in Seneca Falls, New York. And I'm convinced that if in 1848 Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony had had Miss Alice with them, the course of history would have been changed. (LAUGHING.) REV. BUTTS: And the road to where we are today in women's rights would have been much shorter. This is because men of that time would have been compelled by Miss Alice's logic, reason and unshakable conviction to do what is right. For after you have been counseled by Miss Alice, the course of action seems clear and you follow her advice as I have done for 30 years, 20 of which I have been her law partner. So today, my friends, I conclude this with that heartfelt statement. And I commend to you Alice Finch Lee, a woman who when she has gone forth to preach about the law and about life has used words when necessary. (APPLAUSE.) * * * * * 29 MS. HARE: Miss Alice, at this time the Alabama Bar Association, the Women's Section, would like to present you with the Maud McLure Kelly Award. (APPLAUSE.) MS. HARE: And we'd like your remarks. MS. LEE: When I review the life and achievements of Maud McLure Kelly, I am overwhelmed that I should be the second recipient of the award which honors her. I am deeply grateful to the Women Lawyers section of the Bar for this unmerited honor which might rightfully belong to others. Thank you so very much. (APPLAUSE.) MS. LEE: I would very much amiss if I did not let Dawn Hare know how appreciative I am of the innovative ideas which she created and translated into action to enable me to enjoy the full content of this occasion. (APPLAUSE.) MS. LEE: Thank you, Debbie, for being my ears. You are the most effective, more so than this piece of machinery that I try to cope with. (LAUGHING.) 30 MS. LEE: Were I to remain true to Dr. Butts' gracious introduction, I would at this point, having expressed my appreciation, sit down. (LAUGHING.) MS. LEE: But since I'm not standing, I am going to ask you a favor, as a prerogative of age, to allow me to reminisce. Recently I read Keith B. Norman's article in The Alabama Lawyer on the new Alabama State Bar exam. It sparked the recollection that it was 60 years ago that I was engaged in taking that exam and what changes these 60 years have wrought. World War II had decimated the ranks of the law students, for Selective Service did not perceive a legal education to be of such consequence as to become a reason for deferment of or exemption from Military Service. On Monday morning in mid July of 1943, I and three 4-Fs presented ourselves as candidates at the Whitley Hotel in Montgomery, Alabama -- (LAUGHING.) MS. LEE: -- where we would eat, sleep and fight the battle of the clock for the next four days. Promptly at 8 o'clock on that first morning the first 31 of the examiners appeared and explained to us the process. There would be a different examiner each day and each one of them would give four exams, two hours in length each. In each event we would be given the facts in hypothetical cases, and we were to render a decision in each and discuss in depth our reasoning which caused us to arrive at such decisions. The number of cases went from 7 to 12. I do not recall that a single one of the four completed a single examination, a factor which caused considerable anxiety as we had no clue as to how it would affect our examination. (LAUGHING.) MS. LEE: Four examiners, 16 exams, and at 5 p.m. on the afternoon of day 4 we were finished. It is my private opinion that Lance Armstrong, who is currently looked upon as the epitome of stamina and endurance, is no more fatigued at the conclusion of one of his races than we were at the end of day four. (LAUGHING.) MS. LEE: The most of my legal education came in the era of the Code of 1940, to be recompiled in 1958. Then came the blockbuster of 1975. About 32 the time the new code was becoming effective, I happened to be doing some title work in the probate office in Camden when I ran into my old friend and contemporary, John Godbold. We chatted, and presently John asked how I was managing the new code. I replied that I had attended two seminars, but I would not really get into it and digest it until I began to use it. John heaved a heavy sigh and said something like this: I hate to spend the last half of my life unlearning what it took me the first half of my life to learn. I heartily agreed with John's assessment. (LAUGHING.) MS. LEE: We then continued to pursue our ideas concerning change in our profession. The best thought I could offer was the inscription carved at the entrance of the Yale Law School: The law is a living growth, not a changeless code. John's contribution was a Roscoe Pound observation: Law must be stable and yet it cannot stand still. 28 years after the fact, in John's vernacular, I am still unlearning. It's amazing how one's earliest education adheres to the memory cells. 33 (LAUGHING.) MS. LEE: When I became involved in the United Methodist Church beyond the conference level, I was with men and women from all over the United States and a few from overseas. A certain amount of attention was focused on me because of my profession. A woman lawyer was a novelty to most of them, and I was constantly being asked questions about my office. I tried to explain to them that my office generally had the appearance of any law office with which they might be familiar. What I didn't tell them was that my desk had the reputation of being the messiest in the profession, second only to that of Mr. Gessner T. McCorvey of Mobile. (LAUGHING.) MS. LEE: There was one question constantly asked of me, especially by women. It was: How did you cope with discrimination? My answer: It was no problem. Nobody believed me. (LAUGHING.) MS. LEE: Very early in my practice our firm, together with a Mobile attorney famed for his oratorical powers, became involved in a wrongful death 34 suit which created much interest locally because of the parties involved. Presiding was Circuit Judge Francis W. Hare, the father of Nicholas, the grandfather of Chipper. As a neophyte, I sat quietly at the table watching the old pros in action. Testimony had been taken; two speakers from each side had made their arguments to the jury. Then Judge Hare made a statement to the jury which went something like this: It is customary in cases like this for there to be two speeches on each side. However, we have with us the youngest member of the Bar. And if this young lady would like to address the jury, I will grant her that privilege. The door opened and I walked through it. (APPLAUSE.) MS. LEE: Judge Hare had paved the way for my acceptance, and I was treated as a member of the Bar and not as an aberration. Women lawyers of the Bar, Maud McLure Kelly was our flagship, and we must continue to carry her flag. Justice Janie Shores, please get your history to the printer. I want to be here to read 35 it. (LAUGHTER.) MS. LEE: Thank you very much. (STANDING OVATION.) MS. LEE: All I can say is thank you. MS. HARE: Our award is a little different since it is -- for two years we've given it to women who have taken a lead for women's roles in the state of Alabama. We have a plaque that is in the State Bar office. It's presently being redone. It has Maud McLure Kelly's image etched on it. It has Justice Shore's name as our first recipient and Miss Alice Lee as our second. We also have a piece of jewelry because we figure women need something special, not to go on a desk. And believe me, we wouldn't find it on Miss Alice's desk. (LAUGHING.) MS. HARE: So we have a lovely piece of jewelry which is blind justice and the scales of justice that she will open and be able to wear. Please feel free to stop by and visit with Miss Alice. Do understand because of her hearing 36 impairment -- Debbie is going to stay around for awhile. You need to speak to her straight on, but Debbie will be writing down what you say so she can visit with you. Thank you all for coming. Oh, Miss Alice, we have one special presentation to you also from our president, Fred Gray. MR. GRAY: Miss Alice, Miss Alice, I want you to know that I didn't know you before today, but I know you now. And one thing I really realize, and that is you have over these 60 years as a member of the Bar been doing what my theme is this year, and that is lawyers render service. You have certainly rendered service during all of these years. (APPLAUSE.) MR. GRAY: And I am delighted -- among all of the other things that you're reading, I want you to read two other books. And I'm the author of both. (LAUGHING.) MR. GRAY: One is Bus Ride to Justice, which really is a history of the civil rights movement as it has evolved in this state -- and I am delighted that your Alma Mater, Huntingdon College, gave me an 37 honorary degree this year, the Doctor of Humane Letters. So you'll read not that in this one, but that will be in the next edition. And secondly, I want you to have a copy of The Tuskegee Syphilis Study, which is an insider's account of the shocking medical experiment conducted by our government on some persons in Macon County. Thank you so very much for your life and what you mean to this Bar. Thank you. (APPLAUSE.) MS. HARE: And Martha Jane is going to close us out. MS. PATTON: Okay. Miss Alice, it's such a privilege for all of us to honor you today. And I am so pleased to finally make your acquaintance. I've admired your work at a distance for a long time. And I just want to say a brief thing for our outgoing president, Dawn Hare. Dawn has served us as chair of the Women's Section for two years now and has done an admirable job. Up until your final moments today, Dawn, it will be difficult to do the things that you have done for us. But I aspire to it just as we aspire to what Miss Alice Lee has done. And I want 38 to give you a little token of our esteem and affection today and hope you all will recognize Dawn's outstanding work as chair of this section. (APPLAUSE.) MS. HARE: I don't know if it's a gag, if it's going to jump up and bite me or not. MS. PATTON: Yesterday she gave all of us who were on the panel for our CLE program some glasses. And so we thought maybe she might want to see a little bit better than what she might be able to see with glasses. (LAUGHING.) MS. HARE: This is for the seeing impaired, Miss Alice. (LAUGHING.) MS. PATTON: Thank you, Dawn. MS. HARE: Thank y'all. (APPLAUSE.) MS. HARE: Thank you so much for coming. Please try to visit if you have the time. See you next year when we'll have another wonderful recipient. * * * * * A WOMAN: Thank you so much. It was such a 39 pleasure for us to be with you. You're just a wonderful lady. Thank you so much. * * * * * A WOMAN: You did a wonderful job. It was just fabulous. We would like you to reconsider speaking at the Opening of Court. We're going to get back in touch with you because you did such a great job today. Nobody could do it better. We can do that. We can do that. We'll arrange it. No one else can be the first woman to do it. Please. Think about it. * * * * * A WOMAN: Miss Alice, I have my picture with you from last year, so I want one this year, too. * * * * * MR. ROBINSON: This is my wife, Sandy Grisham Robinson. MS. ROBINSON: Hi, Miss Alice. I'm so happy to meet you. That was a beautiful speech. Thank you so much for coming. * * * * * A MAN: You make me miss you so much. That was a beautiful talk. We love you. Good to see you. 40 And thank you, Debbie. * * * * * A WOMAN: I'm tired of crying. I just cried. * * * * * MS. WALKER: Hello, Miss Lee. My name is Marian Walker. I grew up in Tuscaloosa. I practice in Birmingham. We're all so proud of you. Thank you for all you've done. * * * * * A MAN: Thank you very much. It was wonderful. Thank you. I'm going to keep in touch with you. * * * * * A MAN: I wondered if you could take this down. Please rethink. Please rethink the invitation for October. I wish we could persuade you to rethink it. It's still open. We haven't invited anybody else. He's wanting a picture. That would be great. This was superb. All these people here are going to say I fell down on my duty in not getting you 41 to do that. It was wonderful, enjoyed it so much. Anyway, I don't want to impose. * * * * * A WOMAN: We enjoyed it so much. You were wonderful. * * * * * A MAN: We enjoyed it. Congratulations. * * * * * A WOMAN: Thank you so much. I really, really enjoyed that. I wish you would write down your story. You mentioned having Janie Shores do it, but you need to write a book. * * * * * A MAN: You are a blessing to every single person. Thank you for being a beautiful person. We love you. * * * * * A MAN: Congratulations. It's so good to see you again. Take care of yourself. I'll see you in Monroeville. MS. LEE: Come by the office. A MAN: Yes, ma'am, I will. Bye. * * * * * 42 A WOMAN: Alice, when they said -- somebody said -- I guess Tom said you had stopped making tax returns 25 years ago, I thought: For all but a few. MS. LEE: I stopped taking on new clients. A WOMAN: And we won't die, so she can't get rid of us. * * * * * MS. GRAY: Hello, Miss Alice. How are you? I'm Fred Gray's, the president's, wife. I'm Carol Gray. It's delightful to meet you. You're a remarkable lady. I'm just so honored to meet you. Can I see your gift? Oh, that's it? How beautiful. That's lovely. God bless you. * * * * * A WOMAN: Thank you for being our honorary. Thank you so much. This was wonderful. MS. LEE: I was wondering how I was going to get through this day, but it's been great. A WOMAN: Beautiful, beautiful. * * * * * MS. COLLINS: I'm Celia, Dawn's friend. I'm in Gessner McCorvey's law firm. And they tell me all the time that my desk is almost as bad as 43 Mr. McCorvey's. So I am so glad I have another role model, and I'm going to go back and tell them. I love my desk the way it is. I've seen the pictures of your desk. That was wonderful. And you mentioned my hero, Lance Armstrong. A WOMAN: Celia is a cyclist. She rides. MS. COLLINS: And I love Lance Armstrong. That was wonderful. Oh, she's got the pin. We didn't see it. Oh, it's beautiful. It's beautiful. * * * * * A WOMAN: We would like to get a transcript and have this published in The Alabama Lawyer of your remarks. And perhaps some of Dr. Butts' as well. With your permission, could we have a transcript -- we had some of Justice Shores' remarks put in The Alabama Lawyer. We would love to have yours. * * * * * A WOMAN: Thank you so much for everything. We really appreciate you so much. Thank you again. It's a privilege to work in the same Bar. * * * * * A MAN: Fantastic. Fantastic. I loved about Lance Armstrong. You've got that bookshelf I 44 built for you in your home; keep it full. * * * * * (THE LUNCHEON CONCLUDED AT 2:20 P.M.)