The summer of 1973 after I graduated from Forest Hill, five friends came down from Senatobia and Memphis for a long weekend visit. Among the things on their to-do list was a visit to Miss Eudora Welty. She wouldn’t be hard to find — we might run into her at the Jitney Jungle 14, but that didn’t seem sure enough to count on. Besides, she had lived in the same house forever and was listed in the phone book just like everyone else in Jackson. So it wasn’t long before the six of us were on her front porch, knocking on the door.
Miss Welty opened the door herself and looked out at the mob on her porch and asked “May I help you?”
I explained that my high school-age friends had come all the way to Jackson and really wanted to meet her.
She said, “Well, I am working, but why don’t you all come in.”
She welcomed us into her rather plain parlor and began to ask questions about the six of us: “Where do you go to school? What is your favorite subject? What sort of books do you read?”
Here we were excited to meet a world-famous author, and Miss Welty was more interested in what us six teenagers were doing. We tried to ask her a few erudite questions about “The Ponder Heart” and “Why I Live at the P.O.”, which she dutifully answered.
After a few minutes, she asked us if we wanted something to drink and some cookies, but we had been raised better and told her “thank you, no.” She noticed that we each had a book or two so she asked if she might sign them for us, carefully personalizing each one. Knowing that she was busy, we excused ourselves, and she saw us to the door, waving to us as we drove down Pinehurst. For a few minutes, Miss Welty had made us feel as if we were the most important people in the world.
Years later, when I was the new Operations Supervisor of the Jackson Social Security office, I checked the reception area and saw Miss Welty sitting there waiting along with everyone else. I went out and offered to get someone to help her right away, and she told me no, that she would wait her turn. I wondered if she might be observing the other people waiting and their interactions with each other and the staff. After one of the Service Representatives had helped her with her Medicare issue, she gathered up her papers and quietly left the office. I said something to the employee, and she said, “Oh, we see her every now and then, but she just wants us to treat her like everyone else.” What a gracious lady!
Written by Rod Clark
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Click here to learn about Carolyn Brown’s A Daring Life: A Biography of Eudora Welty
Click here to see all blogs in our Miss Welty series
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