| Though most of us know of Helen Keller from our | | | | where Helen met an instructor (and former student |
| studies in school as being a magnificently bright woman | | | | there) named Anne Sullivan. Their friendship lasted 49 |
| who happened to be blind and deaf, and a very prolific | | | | years. Sullivan eventually became governess and later |
| writer, mainly about those two issues in her life. Though | | | | companion of Helen Keller. |
| they are indeed true, that is not what she considered | | | | Anne Sullivan arrived at the Keller home in 1887 and |
| her “finest writings”. | | | | taught Helen to communicate by spelling words with |
| Keller was born on June 27, 1880, in a small Alabama | | | | her hand. Her first word was doll, as she had brought it |
| town called Tuscumbia. She was daughter of | | | | as a present for Helen. Later Helen was nearby when |
| Confederate Army soldier Captain Arthur H. Keller and | | | | Sullivan was washing her hands, felt the motions of the |
| her mother was Kate Adams Keller, whose cousin | | | | palm of her hand and felt the cool water running her |
| was Confederate General Robert E. Lee. | | | | own hand and said “water”. After that, she |
| Doctors said she was not going to live past the age of | | | | nearly drove Sullivan to exhaustion wanting to know |
| two due to her illnesses that were thought to be | | | | the word for every single thing that existed in her |
| scarlet fever and meningitis. She was not born blind | | | | environment. |
| nor deaf but the sickness eventually caused it at about | | | | Her admirer, Mark Twain, had introduced her to |
| 19 months old. | | | | Standard Oil magnate Henry H. Rogers who, with his |
| What she considered her biggest claim to fame, were | | | | wife, paid for her education. In 1904, at the age of 24, |
| not her writings about her disabilities, which she | | | | Keller graduated from Radcliffe, becoming the first |
| obviously did not let get in her way of achievement, | | | | deaf blind person to earn a B.A. degree. |
| but her relentless campaigning for woman’s | | | | Keller wrote a total of 12 published books and several |
| suffrage, equal rights, anti-war, socialism, and other | | | | articles, and is credited for bringing the Akita dog to the |
| progressive causes. Many documentaries and books | | | | U.S from Japan, a dog she loved and admired for its |
| were written about her but the most famous film of all | | | | loyalty and gentleness. |
| was “The Miracle Worker”. | | | | In 1965 she was elected to the National Women’s |
| Keller’s parents were proud and inspired by their | | | | Hall Of Fame at the New York World’s Fair. |
| child as, there was still much stigma attached to any | | | | Keller devoted much of her later life to raising funds |
| type of disability, and blindness and deafness were no | | | | for the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB). She |
| exception. Helen went with her father who sought out | | | | died in her sleep on June 1, 1968 at her home, Arcan |
| the best eye, ear, nose and throat specialist in the | | | | Ridge, which was in Westport, Connecticut. . A service |
| country, located in Baltimore for advice on Helen’s | | | | was held in her honor at Washington D.C.’s National |
| future. Chisolm put them in touch with Alexander | | | | Cathedral and and her ashes were placed there next |
| Graham Bell who happened to be working with deaf | | | | to her constant companions, Anne Sullivan and Polly |
| children. Bell suggested Perkins School For the Blind | | | | Thompson. |