Helen Keller

Helen Keller (1880-1968) was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, the first child of Kate Adams and Confederate Army captain Arthur Keller. At age nineteen months, she was stricken with an illness that left her permanently blind and deaf. Anne Sullivan was appointed as Keller's teacher in 1887; their powerful bond and Sullivan's determination to break through the child's barriers by means of manual sign language is famously depicted in the film and play The Miracle Worker and other dramatic interpretations.After her early education in New York and Boston, Keller graduated from Radcliffe College in 1904. She went on to a lifetime of world-changing achievements as a prolific author, renowned lecturer, celebrated advocate for the disabled, and stalwart activist. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964.