Today is a day that celebrates the life and achievements of Helen Keller, a woman who overcame blindness and deafness and became famous in the process.
Miracle Worker Movie
I first learned of Helen Keller with “The Miracle Worker” movie in 1962. Anne Sullivan was called a miracle worker for helping teach Helen, her pupil, how to read and write when no one thought she would learn. So, I have the tendency to view Helen Keller only as the young girl struggling to define her life with severe disabilities.
Education
Helen Keller met famous author Mark Twain at fourteen and they remained friends until he died 16 years later.
Keller would go on to become an author. In 1902, her book, “The Story of my Life” was published and loved by many who took her story to heart. She graduated from Radcliffe College and graduated with honors in 1904, making her the first blind and deaf woman to graduate from college. People were inspired by her resounding spirit to surpass the expectations placed on her because of her disabilities, and it led to advances in public services of the handicapped.
Advocacy
Helen Keller was a fundraiser for the American Foundation for the Blind and an advocate for racial and sexual equality. Sullivan and Keller became a lifelong duo and from 1920 to 1924, they formed a vaudeville act to entertain, raise money, and educate the public.
In 1936, Keller received the Theodore Roosevelt Distinguished Service Medal. Helen Keller was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1953.
June 1, 1968, Keller died in Easton, Connecticut, at age 87, but her legacy of civil service and a resilient spirit is everlasting. Hellen Keller is listed in Time Magazine’s 100 most important figures of the 20th century.