Local funeral services are Saturday for the widow of a slain Liberty civil rights activist. Prince Estella Melson Lee, died Jan. 16, according to Richardson Funeral Home of Jefferson, Louisiana.
Visitation is 6 tonight at St. Michael Baptist Church in Kenner, Louisiana, until services there at 7. Local services are 11 a.m. Saturday at Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church on Bean Road in Liberty. Burial will follow in the church cemetery.
Mrs. Lee was the widow of Herbert Lee Sr., an Amite County voting rights activist who was gunned down at the age of 42 on Sept. 25, 1961, at a Liberty cotton gin for his role in the civil rights movement.
E.H. Hurst, a member of the state Legislature at the time, admitted to killing Lee but claimed it was in self-defense. He was never charged.
A historical marker about the Lee shooting was erected in 2010 in front of the cotton gin, where the Cotton Gin Restaurant is located now.
Mrs. Lee is survived by three sons, four daughters and other relatives and friends.
