Eudora Welty was born on April 13, 1909 in Jackson, Mississippi. His father's name is Christian Welty and his mother's name was Chestina Welty. He has two brothers named Edward Welty and Walter Welty. Welty grew up in a house full of books. Her mother gave her a passion for reading and writing. Eudora attended Davis Elementary School. She attended and graduated from Jackson's Central High School. Eudora was a graduate of the University of Wisconsin and had studied economics for a year at Columbia University. Eudora earned her bachelor's degree. She also attended Mississippi University for Women. Eudora was a short story writer, novelist, and photographer. The major themes of his books go beyond Southern loneliness, the pain of growing up, and the need for people to understand themselves. Eudora Welty grew up during the Great Depression. He was able to travel around Mississippi taking photos of people during the Great Depression. "Endured series of misfortunes with stoicism and tolerance." (The New York Times, Prose, 2005). Eudora Welty has faced several difficulties in her life, such as the loss of her family and difficulty finding a job. One struggle that Eudora Welty faced was the loss of family members. The first family member to die was his brother. The brother was born before all the other siblings and Eudora. The child's name was Christian Welty, the same name as his father, and he lived only fifteen months. In 1924, the next family member to die was Eudora's stillborn sister. To be stillborn means to be born dead. In 1931 Christian Welty died of leukemia. Eudora watched her father die during a blood transfusion as her mother lay next to him. In 1957, his brother Walter dies in... middle of paper......graph. Some of the short stories/novels are A Curtain of Green, The Robber Bridgegroom, The Wide Net, The Ponder Heart, The Golden Apples, Delta Wedding, The Bride of the Innisfallen, Losing Battles, and The Optimist's Daughter. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Optimist's Daughter. He also received the National Medal for Literature. Eudora was in a relationship with a man with John Robinson, but was apparently homosexual. Rumors spread that Eudora was possibly a lesbian. (The Washington Post, Yardley, 2005) She has never married. "It never came out." (New York Times, 2014). Eudora Welty died on July 23, 2001, of cardiopulmonary failure at the age of ninety-two. Cardiopulmonary disease is a heart disease in which the heart cannot pump enough blood to the rest of the body. She returned to the house where she had grown up and continued to live there until her death.