Helen Keller smiling

Who was Helen Keller?

Helen Keller is considered by many to be a leading effigy of the twentieth century. When she was an babe, affliction robbed her of her vision and hearing. Thanks to the pioneering strategies developed past Perkins' starting time director, Samuel Gridley Howe, and the tenacity of Perkins alumna, Anne Sullivan, she became the world's best known individual with deafblindness.

Today, she is notwithstanding regarded equally ane of the well-nigh powerful and well-known advocates for people who are blind and deafblind. Her books and speeches have inspired millions including many well-known individuals such equally Conrad Hilton, founder of Hilton Hotels, Ronald Reagan and Eleanor Roosevelt. Through her tireless efforts, she transformed the way the globe viewed people with disabilities.

Where was Keller born?

A very good for you baby, Keller was born June 27, 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama, to retired Regular army Captain Arthur Keller and his 2nd wife, Kate. Keller had a younger brother, Phillips Brooks, and a sister, Mildred. Her male parent was a cotton plantation owner and the editor of a pop news weekly, The N Alabamian. She lived a full life of 87 years, dying on June ane, 1968.

How did Keller become deafblind?

At the historic period of 19 months, Keller became very ill with a high fever, leaving her totally deafened and bullheaded. Doctors at that time diagnosed it equally "brain fever." Experts today believe she suffered from crimson fever or meningitis.

How did Keller communicate with others?

By age 7, Keller had developed nearly lx hand gestures to communicate with her parents and ask for things. However, she was oftentimes frustrated by her inability to express herself. With the help of her teacher, Anne Sullivan, Keller learned the transmission alphabet and could communicate by finger spelling.

Within a few months of working with Sullivan, Keller's vocabulary had increased to hundreds of words and simple sentences. Sullivan likewise taught Keller how to read braille and raised type, and to impress block letters. By age 9, Keller began to learn to speak and read lips, skills she continued to develop throughout her lifetime.

Who was Anne Sullivan?

Anne Sullivan was Keller's teacher, companion and friend for nearly 50 years. Sullivan was born April fourteen, 1866 in Feeding Hills, Massachusetts, to poor Irish immigrants. At the age of 5, Sullivan contracted trachoma, a contagious conjunctivitis that attacks the optics, and was left almost entirely blind. She later received several eye operations that restored some of her vision. Afterward graduating class valedictorian from Perkins Schoolhouse for the Blind in 1886, she moved to Tuscumbia, Alabama, to become Keller's teacher. Sullivan remained with Keller until her death on October twenty, 1936.

Where did Keller attend schoolhouse?

Keller attended Perkins School for the Blind for four years. She then spent a year at the Cambridge School for Young Ladies to prepare for Radcliffe Higher. In 1904, she graduated cum laude from Radcliffe and became the kickoff person with deafblindness to earn a Bachelor of Arts caste. After, Keller was the get-go adult female to be awarded an honorary degree from Harvard University. She also received honorary degrees from Temple University and the Universities of Glasgow, Scotland; Delhi, Bharat; Berlin, Germany; and Witwatersrand and Johannesburg, South Africa.

What subjects did Keller study?

Keller was an gorging reader and follower of politics and earth events. Amid her favorite books were philosophy texts and volumes of poetry. She also enjoyed studying history and economics as well equally foreign languages including French, Latin and German.

Subsequently completing school, what did Keller practise?

Keller used her didactics and influence to assist meliorate the lives of others. She published several books and essays most her own life and views and spent much of her time lecturing and lobbying for important social issues including women's suffrage and assistance for people who were blind and deafblind. Keller also performed vaudeville and had a taste of Hollywood, making two movies about her life, "Deliverance" and "The Unconquered." Much of Keller's later years were spent traveling around the globe, raising coin and awareness for the bullheaded and other social issues.

Did Keller ever marry?

No, although she was briefly engaged and had many admirers. Keller'due south instructor and lifetime companion Sullivan did ally, yet, and Keller lived with Sullivan and her husband, John Macy.

Did Keller meet anyone famous?

Keller fabricated several famous friends and acquaintances. Among her friends were author Marking Twain and inventor Alexander Graham Bell. Keller too met Charlie Chaplin, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Eleanor Roosevelt, Martha Graham, Bharat's erstwhile Prime Minister Nehru, the Queen of England, and 12 U.Southward. presidents, from Grover Cleveland to John F. Kennedy.

What kind of causes and charities did Keller advocate for?

Keller worked for a multifariousness of causes during her life. She was an outspoken suffragist, an advocate of worker's rights and an opponent of child labor, but she is best known for her commitment to improving the quality of life for people who are bullheaded and deafblind. As a student at Perkins, she initiated and ran fundraising campaigns to establish a Perkins kindergarten for the blind and to pay for the education of Tommy Stringer, a poor boy with deafblindness whom she met.

As an adult, she lobbied for programs for the prevention of blindness, laws for the education and protection of the blind and deafblind, as well as state-assisted programs to help people with disabilities with job training and placement.

Did Keller receive whatever awards?

Keller received numerous awards throughout her life for her humanitarian efforts. In 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson awarded Keller the highest American honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. On the 50th anniversary of her graduation from Radcliffe Higher, she received the Alumnae Accomplishment Laurels. Radcliffe also defended the Helen Keller Garden in her honor and named a fountain in the garden for her instructor Anne Sullivan. Keller afterwards received Brazil's Order of the Southern Cantankerous, the Philippines' Golden Heart, Japan's Sacred Treasure, and in 1991, was named ane of the most important people of the twentieth century by Life magazine.

Who assisted Keller subsequently Sullivan died?

After Sullivan passed away in 1936, Polly Thomson, who had worked in the Keller household since 1914, became Keller's aide. Thomson passed abroad in 1960 and Winifred Corbally, a nurse-companion, assisted Keller until Keller's expiry in 1968.

How can I learn more than most Keller?

Keller published many manufactures, essays and books. Amid them are two autobiographies, The Story of My Life and Midstream: My Later Life, and a biography of her life with Sullivan called Instructor: Anne Sullivan. She besides published "Optimism: An Essay," "The World I Live in," "The Song of the Rock Wall," "Out of the Dark," "My Religion," "Peace at Eventide," "Helen Keller in Scotland," "Helen Keller's Journal," "Allow U.s.a. Have Organized religion" and "The Open Door."

Amidst the many biographies are Helen and Instructor: The story of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan Macy by Joseph P. Lash and Helen Keller: A Life by Dorothy Herrmann.

In addition, the movie "The Phenomenon Worker" was released in 1962 and was remade for television in 2000. "The Miracle Worker" chronicles many of the challenges and triumphs during Keller's youth. Anne Bancroft won an Oscar for Best Actress for her portrayal of Sullivan. Patty Duke played the part of Keller and also won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Both actresses besides starred in the Broadway version.