Helen Keller

Overview

Helen Keller contracted a virulent childhood disease which resulted in complete loss of sight and hearing at nineteen months. Her parents futilely sought help for her, as did family friend Alexander Graham Bell. Finally, when Keller was seven, Annie Sullivan, a young teacher, was hired by the family. Through a system involving a constant physical contact with Sullivan, a touch alphabet "spelled" into Keller's hand, persistence, faith, and love - detailed in The Miracle Worker (1962) - Keller suddenly and amazingly understood; she quickly and efficiently learned language, and the world opened to her. She asked to be taught to speak at the age of ten. With Sullivan's important emotional and intellectual support, Keller's development took off. Keller graduated - cum laude - from Radcliffe College in 1904. Sullivan was her companion until her death in 1936. Helen Keller wrote prolifically, traveled widely, lectured on various personal, political, and academic topics, and was awarded numerous honorary degrees from universities around the world. She died in 1968, one of the most famous and widely-admired women of our time.
- IMDb mini biography by: Eileen Berdon <eberdon@aol.com>

The most common question she was asked during public appearances was, "Do you close your eyes when you sleep?" Her standard reply was, "I don't know. I've never stayed awake long enough to find out!"
She helped promote the use of Braille among blind people.
Had her eyes replaced with glass eyes when she was 30
An archive of her writings was lost due to the 9/11 terror attacks.
The Helen Keller Society (American Foundation for the Blind) was, sadly, located in one of the Twin Towers.

Life is a daring adventure or nothing. Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature.
Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.
One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.
Instead of comparing our lot with that of those who are more fortunate than we are, we should compare it with the lot of the great majority of our fellow men. It then appears that we are among the privileged.

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