Helen Keller

Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan (http://www.thedeafblog.co.uk/HelenKeller.jpg)

Helen Keller was born on June 27, 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama. When Helen was just 6 months old, she began talking. When she was about two years old in February 1882, she became very sick and she could no longer speak, see, or hear.

After this, Helen could not communicate with her family. So her father Captain Arthur and her mother Kate asked for a teacher to come help Helen. Helen’s teacher, Annie Sullivan, first met her on March 3, 1887. Anne was 20 years old when she began teaching Helen.

Anne taught Helen to finger spell many different words. Helen learned to finger spell more than 600 words. In May 1888, Helen went to school at the Perkins Institute for the Blind. In 1894, Helen and Anne moved to New York to attend the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf and Horace Mann School for the Deaf. She went on to attend Radcliffe College in 1900 and she graduated in 1904 at age 24. During this time she learned French, German, Greek, and Latin in Braille.

Helen Keller became famous for learning how to communicate when she was both blind and deaf. Helen also became a world famous speaker and author that was blind. She wrote a book called, “The Story of My Life.” She lived to be 88 years old before dying peacefully in her sleep in 1968.