American blind and deaf educator, author and lecturer. A brain fever illness at 19 months destroyed her sight and hearing and left her unruly and animalistic, classified as an idiot. At the age of seven, her parents hired Anne Sullivan, a teacher from Boston, who herself had been raised in an insane asylum. With the aid of her dedicated teacher, Helen Keller developed an exceptional mind and ability to express herself. During her lifetime she wrote 14 books and translating 50 books into various languages, wrote countless magazine articles, gave lectures, met presidents and traveled the globe to more than 25 countries. One of the most remarkable women of her age, she received many decorations and honors.
Helen was the eldest child of Arthur and his second wife Kate, a beauty from Memphis who was 20 years younger. With two older half-brothers, James and Simpson, she later had two younger siblings, Mildred and Phillip. Her dad considered himself a gentleman farmer and had served as a captain in the Confederate Army; at the time of her birth he ran a weekly newspaper. As an infant Helen could see and hear and was much like every other baby. She could mimic and say words when just six months old and began to walk on her first birthday. Her illness at 19 months was called by the doctor “acute congestion of the stomach and brain.”
When the baby recovered, she was unable to see, hear, or speak, which she later wrote was “extremely disorienting.” She referred to herself as a Phantom during this period. At six she was taken to an eye specialist in Baltimore who could do nothing for her blindness but said she could be educated. He suggested seeing Dr. Alexander Graham Bell in Washington, DC who had also worked with the deaf. She liked Bell immediately and the two maintained a lifelong friendship. Bell recognized her intelligence and advised her dad to contact the Perkins Institution for the Blind, in Boston, to arrange for a tutor. The director there selected Anne Sullivan, who was not quite 21, half-blind herself and a recent graduate. She arrived at the family home on 3 March 1887. Sullivan taught her Braille in three years, and speech in ten years. When Sullivan spelled words into Keller’s hand she mimicked the movements without understanding until the magical moment when she realized what the letters w-a-t-e-r meant and that everything had a name. Within six months, Keller learned the manual alphabet, could read Braille and raised type and was writing letters.
Helen and Annie became inseparable despite their different personalities. Keller was optimistic and effervescent; Sullivan temperamental and gloomy. When she was 16, her dad died, but he hadn’t paid Sullivan for the past eight years and it was through the kindness of wealthy friends that they continued their activities. Sullivan accompanied her when she attended Radcliffe College where she graduated cum laude in 1904 as the first deaf-blind person to receive a college degree.
From 1920-1922 they joined the vaudeville circuit and became one of the biggest attractions. In 1924 the American Foundation for the Blind offered her a position with a generous income. Keller became an ambassador for the blind raising money and lobbying for the sightless. She made nine tours around the world and visited 34 countries. Several movies have been made about her life and struggles; William Gibson created “The Miracle Worker,” a TV and Broadway play and later a movie.
Keller suffered her first stroke in 1961 and died on 1 June 1968 in Westport, Connecticut, nearing her 88th birthday. Her ashes were taken to the National Cathedral in Washington, DC.
(Annie Sullivan was born on 12 April 1866, though 14 April is usually given, in Feeding Hills, Massachusetts, stated as from birth certificate by Jean Welt Taylor.)
Link to Wikipedia biography