JACKSON, Miss. — Almost any intro-to-literature college textbook can give an overview of Eudora Welty’s work, of how most of her novels and short stories were set in the 20th-century American South but captured a global audience with their intricately developed characters and complex exploration of universal emotions.But the textbooks can’t capture the extent to which Welty remains an iconic presence in her Mississippi hometown nearly eight years after she died at age 92.Friends and fans gathered recently to mark the centennial of Welty’s birth with parties, lectures and concerts.see more on NewsOK.com