Helen Adams Keller

A hero is a person who did something that everybody in the future will remember. My hero is Helen Keller, the deaf/blind woman who became a role model for millions of people around the world.

Helen Keller

Helen Adams Keller was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, on June 27, 1880. Her mother, Kate Adams Keller, was a tall blonde-blue eyed woman 20 years younger than her husband, Captain Arthur Keller. He was the editor of a newspaper as well as a cotton plantation owner. In February 1882, Keller was 19 months old and began to get very sick. The doctors said it was “brain fever.” Her mother noticed, after she recovered, she wasn’t responding to her when she’d talk to her or when she’d put her hand in front of her daughter’s eyes. Helen Keller’s parents soon discovered she was blind and deaf. As she grew older, Helen was very hard to handle. She became very wild and had no understanding of the world she was living in. Relatives said she was a monster and thought she should be put into an institution. On a day in March of 1887, when she was six years old, Helen Keller experienced “the most important day I can remember in my life:” Anne Sullivan came to teach the deaf and blind child.

As Helen Keller grew up to later be an inspiration to all, she was determined. She had her mind made up since the beginning. She was intelligent because she learned very fast, strong willed because she always wanted to have her own way, persistent because she never gave up in life.

Ms. Sullivan began to teach Helen Keller by spelling words into her hand. She was hoping to teach Helen to connect objects with letters. Helen quickly caught on, but didn’t even know she was spelling words or that these words she was spelling even existed.

One day. Mrs. Sullivan brought the deaf and blind child to the outdoor pump. She put Helen's hand under the water and spelled “w-a-t-e-r” in her hand. All of a sudden, words meant something to Helen. She knew “water” was the cool substance that she felt with her hand. She touched the earth and demanded the word. And by the end of the day, Helen Keller knew 30 words.

In 1890 when she was only 10 years old, she wanted to learn to speak. Her speech teacher was Miss Sarah Fuller of the Horace Man School. Even as a little girl, Helen Keller used to say, “someday I shall go to college.” In 1898, Helen Keller attended the Cambridge School for Young Ladies to prepare for Radcliffe College. While Helen Keller was there, she began a writing career. In 1903, "The Story of My Life" appeared in the journal at her school. That book was her most popular. Today, it is available in more than 50 languages.

Helen Keller was a contributor to magazines and newspapers. She mostly wrote about blindness, deafness and women’s rights. Helen received a lot of awards. The premiere of Helen Keller’s film biography, “The Unconquered,” was held in the city of Birmingham. The film was renamed “Helen Keller in Her Story.”

Helen Keller also started a lot of foundations and was always searching for ways to help those less fortunate than herself. The American Braille Press became the American Foundation for Overseas Blind in 1946. Helen was made councilor on international relations. That was when she began the globe-circling tours for the blind, which she was known for later on. She visited 35 countries during 1946 and 1957. She was 75 years old and wherever she traveled, she brought lots of encouragement to a lot of blind people. In 1961, Helen Keller had retired from her public appearances. Even though she had retired from her public life, she was not forgotten by the world. In 1965, she was elected to the Women’s Hall of Fame at the New York World’s Fair. She is also now honored in the Hall of Fame for Leaders and Legends of the Blindness Field. Helen Keller died on June 1, 1968, at the age of 87 years old.

Senator Lister Hill said of Helen Keller, “She will live on, one of the few, the immortal names not born to die. Her spirit will endure as long as man can read and stories can be told of the woman who showed the world there are no boundaries to courage and faith.”

I feel she accomplished a lot in life, starting off blind and deaf as a child and overcoming so many obstacles to become one of the most recognized persons in the world.