Helen Adams Keller

Helen Keller was born in Tuscumbia, Ala. By the age of 2 she had a serious illness that her doctor called "acute congestion of the stomach and brain, "destroyed her sight and hearing. Because of this she was unable to speak and was entirely shut off from the world. But she rose above her disabilities to become internationally famous and to help handicapped people to live fuller lives.

Shortly before she was 7, Anne Sullivan arrived from Boston to teach her. Once she understood, her progress was rapid, it took her 3 years to know the alphabet and she could read and write in braille.

When she was 10 years old, Helen Keller could talk only with sign language of the deaf-mute.B y the time she was 16, she could communicate well enough to go to preparatory school and to college. She became active on the staffs of the American Foundation of the Blind and of the American Foundation for Overseas Blind.

She started the Helen Keller Endownment Fund and asked for funds from wealthy people. In 1932,the Pictorial Review Company gave Keller its $5000 Achievment Prize for her work. During World War II (1939-1945), Helen Keller worked with soldiers who had been blinded in the war. She recieved many awards of great distinction. They included the Chevaliers ribbon of the French Legion of Honor,the Alumni Achievement Award of Radcliffe College, and decorations from governments all over the world.

Some books she wrote have been translated into more than 50 different languages.They include The Story of My Life(1903);Optimism(1903);The World I Live In(1908);The Song of the Stone Wall(1910);Out of the Dark(1913);My Religion(1929);and Midstream:My Later Life(1930).Teacher(1955)and tells of Anne Sullivan Macy. On June 1,1968 she died in Westport,Connecticut.