Willie Morris used to giggle and snort when he told the story of the first time he saw Miss Welty. He would always preface the telling with the set up.
THE SET UP: Willies’ maternal grandparents, Percy and Marion Weaks, lived at 1017 North Jefferson Street, just behind the Jitney 14 (now McDade’s) and when he would visit from Yazoo City, he would accompany his beloved Mamie on errands and journey into the wideness of the big city named for General Andrew “Ole Hickory” Jackson. Though Willie was born in Jackson, his family moved the 50 miles to the, “half hills, half delta” town of Yazoo when he was an infant. One day, he and his Grandmother Weaks were in the Jitney shopping and they spotted Eudora combing through the vegetable stall.
“Look Willie”, his grandmother said, “yonder’s Eudora Welty!”
“Mamie”, young Willie respectfully whispered, “is she that woman who makes up them stories in her mind?”
“Yep Willie, one and the same”.
“Well”, the wide-eyed Willie Weaks Morris promptly responded, “I intend to be a writer myself someday”.
And so he did.
Written by Malcolm White
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