Anne Sullivan

In 1901, Sullivan met John Albert Macy, a Harvard instructor who was helping Keller with her autobiography. They both fell in love and he proposed to her but she resisted, thinking that it will affect her relationship with Keller.

Sullivan and Macy got married in 1905 at the age of 39. He was much younger to her. In 1911, Sullivan fell ill and had to undergo surgery.

Their marriage started getting affected due to Sullivan’s devotion towards Keller and also they had money problems as they were living off Keller’s income. He also started getting troubled with her temperamental moods.

Anne Sullivan was born on 14 April 1866 in Feeding Hills, Massachusetts. She was born to her Irish immigrants parents, Thomas and Alice Cloesy Sullivan. Her parents were poor; father suffered from alcoholism and her mother had tuberculosis.

Sullivan became blind by the age of seven due to untreated trachoma and by that time her mother also died of tuberculosis. This left Keller dealing with her abusive father, who also abandoned her after a while.

In 1876, Sullivan and her brother were sent to a state almshouse in Tewksbury, Massachusetts. Shortly, after moving there, her brother also died and she spent another 4 years there. She was later sent to Perkins School for the Blind, Boston.

In 1880, Sullivan learned to read and write in Perkins and began her formal education there. She also went through several eye operations while she was there, which improved her eye sight drastically.

In 1886, Sullivan graduated from Perkins School for the Blind, Boston as a valedictorian of her class. Immediately after that she was invited into the Keller Family to tutor their daughter, Helen at Tuscumbia, Alabama.

In 1887, Sullivan accepted the offer of Keller family and began her lifelong task as Helen Keller’s teacher. Helen was blind, deaf and mute. She had difficulty initially to deal with Helen as she was an angry and rebellious girl.

Sullivan was Helen’s home tutor for 13 years and after that she accompanied her to Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts. She attended all her classes with her and spelled into her hands all the lectures and assignments.

It was one of the greatest moments in both of the women’s lives when Helen graduated from the university. Alongside her, Sullivan also gained college education.

The following years, Helen and Sullivan started living in Wrentham, Massachusetts and then moved in with a woman called Polly Thompson. Polly was Helen’s secretary and Sullivan’s assistant. In 1916, Anne was diagnosed with tuberculosis and went to Lake Placid to recover.

After Keller died, her ashes were put beside Sullivan’s in the Washington National Cathedral.

She found a small library in Tewksbury and asked people to read to her.

When she went to school for the first time and she felt like she did not know as much as her classmates did.

She was called ‘Miss Spitfire’ by the director of her school, Michael Anagnos, who also became one of her close friends later.