Eudora Welty (1909 – 2001)

She was educated at the Mississippi State College for Women (Now called Mississippi University for Women), the University of Wisconsin, and Columbia University.

During the 1930s, Welty worked as a photographer for the Works Progress Administration. This job sent her all over the state of Mississippi taking photographs of people from all economic and social classes. Collections of her photographs are One Time, One Place, and Photographs.

But Welty's true love was language, not photography. She soon devoted her energy to writing fiction. Her first short story, "Death of a Traveling Salesman," appeared in 1936. In 1941 she published her first collection of short stories, A Curtain of Green.

Her novel, The Optimist's Daughter, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973.

Eudora Welty died of pneumonia in Jackson.