The Life of Helen Keller

    Helen Keller's formal schooling ended when she received her B.A. degree,
    but throughout her life she continued to study and stayed informed
    on all matters of importance to modern people.
    In recognition of her wide knowledge and many scholarly achievements,
    she received honorary doctoral degrees from Temple University and Harvard University
    and from the Universities of Glasgow, Scotland; Berlin, Germany; Delhi, India; and
    Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. She was also an Honorary Fellow of the
    Educational Institute of Scotland.

    Anne Sullivan's marriage, in 1905, to John Macy, an eminent critic and
    prominent socialist, caused no change in the teacher-pupil relationship.
    Helen went to live with the Macys and both husband and wife unstintingly gave
     their time to help her with her studies and other activities.

    While still a student at Radcliffe, Helen Keller began a writing career
    that was to continue on and off for 50 years.
    In 1902, The Story of My Life, which had first appeared in serial form in the Ladies Home Journal,
    appeared in book form. This was always to be the most popular of her works and today is available
    in more than 50 languages, including Marathi, Pushtu, Tagalog, and Vedu.
    It is also available in several paperback editions in this country.

    Miss Keller's other published works include Optimism, an essay; The World I Live In;
    The Song of the Stone Wall; Out of the Dark; My Religion; Midstream--My Later Life;
    Peace at Eventide; Helen Keller in Scotland; Helen Keller's Journal; Let Us Have Faith;
    Teacher, Anne Sullivan Macy; and The Open Door.

    In addition, she was a frequent contributor to magazines and newspapers,
    writing most frequently on blindness, deafness, socialism, social issues,
     and women's rights. She used a braille typewriter to prepare her manuscripts
    and then copied them on a regular typewriter.

    During her lifetime, Helen Keller received awards of great distinction
    too numerous to recount fully here.
     An entire room, called the Helen Keller Room, is devoted to their display
    at the American Foundation for the Blind in New York City.

    These awards include Brazil's Order of the Southern Cross; Japan's Sacred Treasure;
    the Philippines' Golden Heart; Lebanon's Gold Medal of Merit; and her own country's highest honor,
    the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
    Most of these awards were bestowed on her in recognition of the stimulation her example
    and presence gave to work for the blind in those countries. In 1933 she was elected to membership
    in the National Institute of Arts and Letters.
    During the Louis Braille Centennial Commemoration in 1952, Miss Keller was made
    a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor at a ceremony in the Sorbonne.

    On the 50th anniversary of her graduation, Radcliffe College granted her its
    Alumnae Achievement Award.
    Her Alma Mater also showed its pride in her by dedicating the Helen Keller Garden
    in her honor and by naming a fountain in the garden for Anne Sullivan Macy.

    Miss Keller also received the Americas Award for Inter-American Unity,
    the Gold Medal Award from the National Institute of Social Sciences,
    the National Humanitarian Award from Variety Clubs International, and many others.
    She held honorary memberships in scientific societies and philanthropic organizations
    throughout the world.

    Yet another honor came to Helen Keller in 1954 when her birthplace,
     "Ivy Green," in Tuscumbia, was made a permanent shrine.
    It was dedicated on May 7, 1954 with officials of the American Foundation for the Blind
    and many other agencies and organizations present.
    In conjunction with this event, the premiere of Miss Keller's film biography, "The Unconquered,"
    produced by Nancy Hamilton and narrated by Katharine Cornell, was held in the nearby city of Birmingham.
    The film was later renamed "Helen Keller in Her Story" and in 1955 won an "Oscar"--
    the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences award as the best feature-length
    documentary film of the year.

    Miss Keller was indirectly responsible for two other "Oscars" a few years later when
    Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke won them for their portrayals of Anne Sullivan and
     Helen Keller in the film version of "The Miracle Worker."

    More rewarding to her than the many honors she received, were the acquaintances
    and friendships Helen Keller made with most of the leading personalities of her time.
    There were few world figures, from Grover Cleveland to Charlie Chaplin, Nehru,
    and John F. Kennedy, whom she did not meet.
    And many, among them Katharine Cornell, Van Wyck Brooks, Alexander Graham Bell,
    and Jo Davidson, she counted as friends.
    Two friends from her early youth, Mark Twain and William James, expressed beautifully
    what most of her friends felt about her.
    Mark Twain said, "The two most interesting characters of the 19th century are
    Napoleon and Helen Keller.
    " William James wrote, "But whatever you were or are, you're a blessing!"

    As broad and wide ranging as her interests were, Helen Keller never lost sight of the
    needs of her fellow blind and deaf-blind.
    From her youth, she was always willing to help them by appearing before legislatures,
    giving lectures, writing articles, and above all, by her own example of what a severely
    handicapped person could accomplish.
    When the American Foundation for the Blind, the national clearinghouse
    for information on blindness, was established in 1921, she at last had an effective
    national outlet for her efforts. From 1924 until her death she was a member of the
    Foundation staff, serving as counselor on national and international relations.
    It was also in 1924 that Miss Keller began her campaign to raise the
     "Helen Keller Endowment Fund"
    for the Foundation. Until her retirement from public life, she was tireless in her efforts
    to make the Fund adequate for the Foundation's needs.

    Of all her contributions to the Foundation, Miss Keller was perhaps most proud of her
     assistance in the formation in 1946 of its special service for deaf-blind persons.
     She was, of course, deeply concerned for this group of people and was always searching
    for ways to help those "less fortunate than myself."

    Helen Keller was as interested in the welfare of blind persons in other countries
    as she was for those in her own country; conditions in the underdeveloped and
    war-ravaged nations were of particular concern. Her active participation in this area
    of work for the blind began as early as 1915 when the Permanent Blind War Relief Fund,
    later called the American Braille Press, was founded. She was a member of its first board of directors.

    When the American Braille Press became the American Foundation for Overseas Blind
    (now Helen Keller International)
    in 1946, Miss Keller was appointed counselor on international relations.
    It was then that she began the globe-circling tours on behalf of the blind
    for which she was so well known during her later years.
    During seven trips between 1946 and 1957 she visited 35 countries on five continents.
     In 1955, when she was 75 years old, she embarked on one of her longest and most grueling journeys,
    a 40,000-mile, five-month-long tour through Asia.
    Wherever she traveled, she brought new courage to millions of blind people,
    and many of the efforts to improve conditions among the blind abroad can be traced directly to her visits.

    During her lifetime, Helen Keller lived in many different places--
    Tuscumbia, Alabama; Cambridge and Wrentham, Massachusetts; Forest Hills,
     New York, but perhaps her favorite residence was her last, the house in Westport,
    Connecticut she called "Arcan Ridge."
    She moved to this white, frame house surrounded by mementos of her rich and busy life
     after her beloved "Teacher's" death in 1936.
    And it was Arcan Ridge she called home for the rest of her life.
     "Teacher's" death, although it left her with a heavy heart, did not leave Helen alone.
    Polly Thomson, a Scots woman who joined the Keller household in 1914,
    assumed the task of assisting Helen with her work.
    After Miss Thomson's death in 1960, a devoted nurse-companion,
    Mrs. Winifred Corbally, assisted her until her last day.

    Helen Keller made her last major public appearance in 1961 at a Washington, DC, Lions Clubs Meeting.
    At that meeting she received the Lions Humanitarian Award for her lifetime of service to humanity
    and for providing the inspiration for the adoption by Lions International of their sight conservation
    and aid to blind programs. During that visit to Washington, she also called on President Kennedy
    at the White House. After that White House visit, a reporter asked her how many of our presidents
    she had met. She replied that she did not know how many, but that she had met all of them
    since Grover Cleveland!

    After 1961, Helen Keller lived quietly at Arcan Ridge.
    She saw her family, close friends, and associates from the American Foundation for the Blind
    and the American Foundation for Overseas Blind, and spent much time reading.
    Her favorite books were the Bible and volumes of poetry and philosophy.

    Despite her retirement from public life, Helen Keller was not forgotten.
    In 1964 she received the previously mentioned Presidential Medal of Freedom.
    In 1965, she was one of 20 elected to the Women's Hall of Fame at the New York World's Fair.
    Miss Keller and Eleanor Roosevelt received the most votes among the 100 nominees.

    Helen Keller died on June 1, 1968, at Arcan Ridge, a few weeks short of her 88th birthday.
    Her ashes were placed next to her beloved companions, Anne Sullivan Macy and Polly Thomson,
    in the St. Joseph's Chapel of Washington Cathedral.
    On that occasion a public memorial service was held in the Cathedral.
    It was attended by her family and friends, government officials, prominent persons
    from all walks of life, and delegations from most of the organizations for the blind and deaf.
    In his eulogy, Senator Lister Hill of Alabama expressed the feelings of the whole world
    when he said of Helen Keller, "She will live on, one of the few, the immortal names not born to die.
    Her spirit will endure as long as man can read and stories can be told of the woman
    who showed the world there are no boundaries to courage and faith."

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