June 27, 1880 - June 1, 1968
Overview:
Helen Keller’s story has inspired millions. Losing her sight and hearing at the age of two, Helen overcame what seemed to be insurmountable obstacles to become one of the world’s greatest heroines. She is truly an inspiration to us all.
Country:
United States of America
Type
of hero: Economic and Social Rights
Attributes:
Humanist
Biography:
Helen Keller was born on June 27, 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama. When Helen was only nineteen months she fell terribly ill. Finally, the illness passed but in passing it took her sight and hearing. Helen was blind and deaf at the age of two.
Before she learned how to read and communicate she acted like a caged animal, imprisoned in a world of darkness. Helen seemed to be mad at the world, placed in a society she could neither understand nor take part of because of her disability.
Searching for help, Helen’s father, Captain Arthur Keller, wrote to Dr. Alexander Graham Bell whose own mother and wife were deaf. He referred Mr. Keller to Michael Anagnos, the director of the Perkins Institution for the Blind in Boston, Massachusetts. Mr. Anagnos found Annie Sullivan, a twenty-one year old lady who could guide Helen out of the confines of her caged world. It took Annie a week just to tame Helen so that she could begin the long process of teaching her how to communicate. She would spell words using sign language in Helen’s hands but Helen had no idea what the spelling meant. However one day as Helen and Annie were walking, they past by someone pumping water. Annie put Helen’s hand under the pump and Helen later recalls,
“ . . . as the cool stream gushed over one hand, she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. I knew then that W-A-T-E-R meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. As we returned to the house every object I touched seemed to quiver with life.”
After six months Helen knew 300 words, could count to thirty, knew her times tables, mastered Braille, and wrote her first letter using a special writing board with grooves cut in it. She later learned how to speak by putting her fingers inside a teacher’s mouth and learning how the sounds were made and the tongue and lips moved to produce each sound.
Through communications freedom Helen became a kind, caring and generous young girl. She helped a poor blind-deaf boy named Tommy Stringer receive an education at Perkins. That was the beginning of her innate desire to help other people.
In 1894 Annie, who she now commonly refered to as “Teacher,” and Helen enter the Wright-Humason School in New York, where deaf people are taught to speak. Helen who of course was deaf and blind amazed the other children with her ability. Here she learned German and met a greatly inspired Mark Twain. At the age of 16 she entered a blind school called the Cambridge School for Young Ladies in Massachusetts. She took classes in French, Latin, German, English, Greek, Roman History, geometry, physics, astronomy and Mathematics. Anne worked extremely hard to keep Helen up to par with her studies, such as reading her study books and then dictating back to her. Later Helen entered Radcliffe College, the ladies section of Harvard University. In 1903 Helen wrote her first book, "The Story of My Life.”
For the remaining years of her life Helen began to reach out to the people around her. She supported and spoke for Women’s rights and for the blind and deaf. She wrote many more books and visited wounded soldiers during World War II, and toured Europe, South Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, India and Japan. All the while she gave inspirational speeches, inspiring millions by telling them her story. Along the way Polly Thomson joined Helen and Annie and became one of Helen’s closest friends. Annie passed away in 1936 and Polly died in 1960. After Polly’s death Helen suffered several stokes and eventually passed away in 1968.
Helen Keller has inspired millions of people. Her story has touched everyone’s hearts no matter their abilities or disabilities. Helen proved that a person who is “Handicapped” is truly “Handicapable.” She is a model of courage, strength, and fortitude. As a tireless activist she reached out and touched lives and her story will live on and touch millions more.
Citations
& References:
References
Tames, Richard. Helen Keller. London: Franklin Watts, 1989
Budman, Matthew and Jay Stevenson, Ph.D. The Complete Idiot's Guide to American Heroes. New York: Alpha Books, 1999.
Go
back to Great Heroes of the Twentieth Century
