A Daring Life: A Biography of Eudora Welty

SIX: The 1960s: Personal and Political Unrest

59 .6 The 1960s: Personal and Political Unrest What I do in writing of any character is to try to enter into the mind, heart, and skin of a human being who is not myself. Whether this happens to be a man or a woman, old or young, with skin black or white, the primary challenge lies in making the jump itself. It is the act of a writer’s imagination that I set most high. —Eudora Welty, Preface to The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty C oncern over the health of loved ones became Eudora’s focus after the travel, awards, and success that highlighted her life during the first half of the 1950s. Chestina Welty’s eyes were deteriorating and she suffered from food allergies, and both of Eudora ’s brothers were afflicted with arthritis. The fall of 1956 would see all three Weltys hospitalized briefly, and foreshadow more serious health complications to come. Eudora needed all of her strength and was forced to put aside her writing intermittently as she assisted her brothers and mother. A brief reprieve in 1957 that allowed for some writing was followed by the most demanding caregiving to date: both Walter and Chestina required Eudora’s attention and aid. Walter was hospitalized again with problems associated with his arthritis, and frequently, while he and his wife, Mittie, consulted specialists regarding his condition, Eudora kept her nieces, Elizabeth and Mary Alice. Following the Thanksgiving holiday in 1958,Walter went back into 60 The 1960s: Personal and Political Unrest The Welty family: Mittie, Mary Alice, Chestina, Eudora, and Elinor Welty (front); Walter, Edward, and Elizabeth Welty in back, 1956. Walter (top left) would die three years later. Chestina Welty, 1950s. Elizabeth (left) and Mary Alice in the garden, Easter, circa 1950–53. Eudora with Elizabeth (left) and Mary Alice in New Orleans, 1950s. 61 The 1960s: Personal and Political Unrest the hospital and never recovered. Walter Welty died from complications of his arthritis in January 1959. He was only forty-three years old. Eudora wrote to her friend Frank Lyell after Walter’s death: It’s still incredible, all of it, & incredible that a disease like arthritis, that you hear of everywhere,that goes clear back to the Greeks,that so many people put up with in mild forms, could reach such devastating proportions, & in a young, healthy man—& could remain so mysterious —One of the research doctors said he hoped they’d learned something about it from this— which I guess is something. Grief over her brother’s untimely death was deep; even a visit from good friend and fellow writer Elizabeth Bowen, normally a source of great joy, failed to alleviate Eudora’s pain. At the conclusion of her letter to Frank she remarks, “Heavens, Elizabeth Bowen passed through! Seemed so unreal I was about to forget to tell you.” Chestina’s health deteriorated rapidly following Walter’s death; she suffered a stroke, was now completely blind, and was understandably depressed over the death of her youngest child. For Eudora, putting her mother in a nursing home was simply not an option, however; Chestina loved her house and garden and there was simply too great a risk. According to Suzanne Marrs, “[D]angerously inadequate facilities and workers had frequently been reported by the national press....”Eudora herself had described how wretched nursing homes could be in her 1941 story“A Visit of Charity.” Eudora decided to keep her ailing mother at home and care for her herself, hiring additional caregivers to assist her. That nursing her mother and her civil rights activism would beEudora with her mother. 62 The 1960s: Personal and Political Unrest come intertwined seems highly unlikely, but, in fact, that is exactly what happened during this same period that Eudora cared for her mother. Civil rights incidents were happening in Jackson and all over the South. For instance, Eudora was shocked by the presence of armed federal troops to enforce court-ordered integration of Little Rock High School, and expressed her dismay to Diarmuid Russell: “Such awful things happening, I feel like emigrating from the whole country. Bayonets!”She expressed her discontent quietly to her agent, but when the opportunity presented itself to demonstrate her political beliefs she acted without hesitation. When Eudora was invited to speak at Tougaloo College, an African American institution just north of Jackson, simply appearing on the podium was a courageous...