Prominent Figures of the 20th Century...Prominent Figures of the 20th Century...

Early Life

     Birth                                                                                                                             American author and lecturer, who, having overcame extensive physical handicaps, served as an inspiration for other afflicted people.                                                                                          Helen Adams Keller, she was born on the 28^th of June 1880, in Tuscumbia, Alabama. The daughter of Captain Arthur H. Keller, he fought with the Confederate army at Vicksburg, periodically was a US Marshall and he was a newspaper editor, and his second wife Kate Keller.

Helen was a bright and a lively child but at 19 months age, everything changed, she entered a new world that she later described the "no world" when she was stricken with a damaging brain fever that left her blind and deaf. The only way of communication was through hysterical laughter or aggressive tantrums. Her mother discovered that when she was putting an alarm clock beside Helen and unfortunately she did not hear it. There has never been such an accurate analysis for that type and cause of fever. Helen had a far-away memory of what light was like before the fever came.

"I cannot remember how I felt when the light went out of my eyes. I suppose I felt it was always night and perhaps I wondered why the day did not come." Helen Keller.

She started to talk before the fever came, which helped her later, she remembered the word "wah-wah" for water. This was a prophecy, for water was to be the key to her world of language. Her parents could not find any way to educate her and she couldn't understand what they were saying and which made her very angry. She later said that she sometimes kicked and screamed until she was exhausted.

   Anne Sullivan                                                                                                                          At age 7, her parents visited Dr. Alexander Graham Bell in Washington because he was an activist in deaf education. He suggested the Perkins school for the blind in Boston.

A new graduate of the school called Anne Sullivan, also Annie, was offered the position of a teacher. In March 1887, Annie arrived in Tuscumbia to live with the Kellers as governess. Helen invented many signs to ask for things and identify people and communicate with them. Her effort in communicating bothered her a lot and that led to behavior problems, even though she was a lovely child.

"I saw clearly that it was useless to try to teach her language or anything else until she learned to obey me. I have thought about it a great deal, and the more I think, the more certain I am that obedience is the gateway through which knowledge, yes, and love, too, enter the mind of a child." Anne Sullivan.