Helen Keller Birthday

My sister being 4 years older than me often found out about the school stuff before I did. One great hero of mine that she read all about before I even knew about was Helen Keller. Now we knew a Mrs. Keller that lived in our hometown and I loved her to death she was the nice old lady that always talked to kids and have us sit down and tell us all about our day. Not many adults did that back then and not enough take time to pay atteniong to kids now days (my own opinion).

With the last name of my favorite neighbor I reckoned that Helen Keller had to be awesome. I was right in many aspects. She did teach me many great lessons. The first deaf-blind person to earn a bachelor of arts degree, has her name down as an author, a political activist and teacher. This hero of mine taught me the great lesson to never quit. The movie The Miracle Worker told Helen's story about who she was and started the story at her birthplace in West Tuscumbia Alabama. In the home town also stands a museum where an annual "Helen Keller Day" is held. 

Helen Keller never let her disability get her down. She was a fighter and often fought for the rights of the masses. From being involved in campaigns for women's suffrage, labor rights, socialism, antimitarism and other causes. In 1971 Keller was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame. 

Helen Keller Day is the same as her birthday June 27th. Tuscumbia Alabama welcomed a fighter in the year of 1880 to a family that lived in the home that the grandfather had built decades before. Helen had two siblings a sister and a brother, she also had two older half brothers who belonged to her father.

Helen's father Arthur spent many years as an editior for the Tuscumbia North Alabamian. He had also been a captain in the confederate Army. Helen's grandmother was the second cousin of Robert E.Lee. Helen's mother Kate was the daughter of a confederate general. 

Helen was born with the ability to see and hear but at 19 months old she came down with an infection some think similiar to scarlet fever or meningitis. The illness would leaver her blind and deaf. She would learn home signs to try to communicate with others as she grew. The family would reach out for help and find many that would help including Alezander Graham Bell. Anne Sullivan would become Helen's instructor as well as friend. 

Anne would come to live with the family when Helen was 7 years old. The work of understanding new language practices started at once. The break through point would be the word water. 

Read much more about her life here