Eudora Alice Welty was born on April 13, 1909 at the Welty Estate on North Congress Street in Jackson, Mississippi to Christian Webb and Chestina Andrew Welty. She learned early on the importance of reading and gained her love for reading from her mother. "Books were so valued that once when the house caught fire, her mother threw out volumes of Dickens before getting herself to safety." Eudora grew up in a very close family with two brothers, Edward and Walter. Her parents were very protective and kept her from many things of the world. In One Writer's Beginnings, Eudora writes "Even as we grew up, my mother could not help imposing herself between her children and whatever it was they might take it in mind to reach out for in the world She stood always ready to challenge the world in our place." And in Eudora's young adulthood she was ready to challenge the world herself.
Eudora attended Central High School in Jackson, Mississippi between 1921 and 1925. After she completed High School she went to Mississippi State College for Woman in Columbus, Mississippi from 1925 to 1927. "Encouraged by her parents, she transferred to the University of Wisconsin in 1927, where she became an English major and began a more serious and focused study of English literature under Ricardo Quintana and other professors". She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1929. Eudora then went to Columbia University Graduate School in New York where she studied advertising. .
In 1931, Eudora returned to Jackson, Mississippi. In this same year, her father suddenly passed away. His death was a great loss to her and her family. Eudora soon .
was looking for jobs in advertising and publicity. The first job that she had was part time with the local radio station. Then, she got a full time job with Works Progress Administration as a Junior Publicity Agent. Her duties in this job was to write newspaper articles, taking photos of places after there had been destruction, putting booths up at county fairs and interviewing lots of different people.