Helen Adams Keller (June 27, 1880 – June 1, 1968) was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first person to earn a bachelor of arts degree. The story of how Keller's teacher, broke through the isolation imposed by a near complete lack of language, allowing the girl to blossom as she learned to communicate.
Early childhood and illness[]
Helen Adams Keller was born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, Alabama. Her family lived on a homestead, that Helen's grandfather had built decades earlier. She had two siblings, Mildred Campbell and Phillip Brooks Keller, and two older half-brothers from her father's prior marriage, James and William Simpson Keller.
Helen Keller was born with the ability to see and hear. At 19 months old, she contracted an unknown illness described by doctors as "an acute congestion of the stomach and the brain", which might have been or .The illness left her both deaf and blind. At that time, she was able to communicate somewhat with Martha Washington, the six-year-old daughter of the family cook, who understood her signs; by the age of seven, Keller had more than 60 to communicate with her family. Even though blind and deaf, Helen Keller had passed through many obstacles and she learned to live with her disabilities. She learned how to tell which person was walking by from the vibrations their footsteps would make.
Companions[]
stayed as a companion to Helen Keller long after she taught her.
Sullivan married John Macy in 1905, and her health started failing around 1914.
Polly Thomson (February 20, 1885 – March 21, 1960) was hired to keep house. She was a young woman from Scotland who had
no experience with deaf or blind people. She progressed to working as a secretary as well, and eventually became a constant companion to Keller.