Anne Sullivan
In Feeding Hills, Massachusetts on April 14th, 1866 an angel was born. Her name was Johanna (Anne) Sullivan. Anne's parents were immigrants from Ireland who were hard working farmers, also carrying for her brother Jimmie who was crippled from tuberculosis. Her early home life was a life of poverty and physical abuse by her father who was an alcoholic. At the age of five, Anne nearly went blind when she was struck with trachoma, a very painful infectious disease. Two years later, her mother died and her father left her to an orphanage.
Courageously, she decided that she wasn't going to let challenges stand in the way of her living. In spite of her physical abuse, blindness, and abandonment, she made a choice to not be defeated. In 1880 Anne was generously offered to go to Perkins School for the Blind, where she learned how to read and write. She learned how to use the manual alphabet and communicated with a friend who was deaf and blind. Her life progressed even more as her eye sight improved significantly after receiving several successful eye operations and she graduated in 1886 as the Valedictorian of her class.
In March of 1887 Anne Sullivan embarked on her journey with Helen Keller who was blind, deaf, and mute young girl. She taught her for thirteen years and then accompanied her to Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Anne was with Helen in every class, spelling in her hand all the demonstrations, lectures, and assignments. Though Anne was not a student, she gained a college education through Helen.
During her college years, she met and fell in love with John Albert Macy. They were married on May 3rd. 1905. Sadly, their marriage crumbled and were separated by 1914. They never divorced.
In 1924, Anne and Helen toured the country raising awareness for The Foundation of the Blind as advocates, counselors, and fundraisers. In 1930-31, Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania honored Anne and Helen for their accomplishments with honorary degrees. Helen accepted, but Anne refused. After a year of encouraging by Helen and her friends, Anne reluctantly accepted the honor.
Anne was often in the shadows of Helen, but she was truly amazing for her perseverance, courage, and strength. She was fabulous.
