MONROEVILLE, Ala. – The husband of Alabama author Harper Lee’s attorney has been killed in an airplane crash in Montana.
A Montana sheriff’s spokeswoman says 52-year-old Patrick Carter of Monroeville, Alabama, died when a single-engine aircraft went down Wednesday while taking off from the Missoula International Airport in western Montana.
Carter was a longtime pilot and the husband of Monroeville attorney Tonja Carter, who has represented Lee as her second novel “Go Set a Watchman” became a best-seller this year.
A friend of the Carters, Connie Baggett, calls Pat Carter a “brilliant man” who will be deeply missed.
Pat Carter served on the board that oversees the old Monroe County courthouse, which served as a set model for the movie version of Lee’s beloved novel “To Kill a Mockingbird.”