Who is Miracle Worker Anne Sullivan

1. She was determined

2. She was dedicated

3. She was caring

"Keep on beginning and failing. Each time you fail, start all over again, and you will grow stronger until you have accomplished a purpose - not the one you began with perhaps, but one you'll be glad to remember."

"My heart is singing for joy this morning! A miracle has happened! The light of understanding has shone upon my little pupil's mind, and behold, all things are changed!"

"I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built up on the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think."

"Children require guidance and sympathy far more than instruction"

"People seldom see the halting and painful steps by which the most insignificant success is achieved."

The eldest daughter of illiterate, and unskilled Irish immigrants, Anne Sullivan was raised in extreme poverty. Only one of her four siblings reached adulthood. Her father was an alcoholic and her died from tuberculosis when Anne was 9 years old. When Anne was 7 she developed a bacterial infection of the eyes which went untreated and left her with almost no usable sight. An operation when she was 15 restored some of her vision, but she remained visually impaired for the rest of her life. Anne and her brother Jimmie were sent to the Tewksbury Almshouse when Anne was 10. Jimmie died three months later. Their sister Mary was sent to live with an aunt and there is no evidence Anne ever saw Mary again.

Tewskbury was infamous for its cruelty and neglect. When a state official inspected the institution Anne begged to be sent to school. Her plea was successful and she was sent to the Perkins School for the Blind. Her path there was not smooth as she came from a rough, working-class environment with little education, but she worked hard and earned her place as valedictorian of her class in 1886.

In the August following her graduation, Anne was approached about serving as a governess for a young girl who was deaf and blind. This period of time is well documented and famous for her transformation and instruction of Helen Keller.

The two, especially Helen, became celebrities due to this transformation and were known to such dignitaries as Alexander Graham Bell, President Grover Cleveland, and Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain). It was Clemens who called Anne a "miracle-worker."

Thanks to the education and support she received from Anne, Helen passed the Radcliffe entrance examinations and entered the college in 1900. Anne continued to support her education by manually signing all the class lectures and any texts not in braille.

In 1904, Anne and Helen bought a farm in Wrentham, Massachusetts. These years also saw the advent of John Albert Macy into their lives. He became Anne's suitor and husband and Helen's manager and editor. He learned manual sign language and was able to live some of the burdens from Anne's shoulders. However, the marriage failed and in the end Macy left the house and the two women hired a secretary to help Helen.

During World War I, the two traveled extensively and delivered anti-war speeches as well as supported blind and injured soldiers.

As the 1920s drew to a close Anne's eyesight deteriorated and in June 1929 her right eye was removed. Her health continued to decline and she died on October 20, 1936. Anne was cremated and her ashes were laid to rest in the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. She was the first woman to be given this honor on her own merits.

In the fall of 2003, Anne Sullivan Macy was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York, an organization that honors in perpetuity women "whose contributions...have been the greatest value for the development of their country."

Facts drawn from American Foundation For the Blind web site

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