Life of Helen Keller

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  • Helen Keller's Birth

    Helen Keller was born in Tuscumbia to Arthur H. Keller and Kate Adams Keller.

  • Helen contracts meningitis

    Meningitis left her deaf and blind and she had difficulty making herself understood.

  • Anne Suvillian becomes her teacher

    Helen Keller's parents recruited her after Dr. Alexander Graham Bell adviced them to find a teacher from the Perkins Institute for the Blind.

  • Helen understands the meaning of words

    Anne taught Helen to understand language through the combination of water from a pump on one hand and the spelling of "water" with the manual alphabet into her other hand.

  • Helen learns to speak

    She attended Horace Mann School, with the principal, Miss Sarah Fuller as her first speech teacher

  • Helen publishes her first book

    With the help of editor John Albert Macy, Helen wrote her autobiography, "The Story of My Life".

  • Helen Keller graduates from Radcliffe College

    Helen became the first deaf-blind individual to receive a bachelor of arts degree, graduating cum laude from Radcliffe.

  • The founding of Helen Keller International

    Helen Keller and George Kessler founded Helen Keller International (HKI), which combats the causes and consequences of blindness and malnutrition by establishing programs based on evidence and research in vision, health and nutrition

  • Helen retires from public life

    She did so after a series of strokes which started three years earlier and spent the remainder of her life being cared for at her home.

  • Helen Keller's death

    She passes away 26 days before her 88th birthday in her sleep. Over 1,200 mourners attend the funeral at the National Cathedral. Helen's ashes are interred there with those of Anne and Polly.