Who Was Helen Keller?Helen Keller became both blind and deaf
after suffering a nearly fatal illness at 19 months of age.
Seemingly sentenced to a life of isolation, Helen made a
dramatic breakthrough at the age of six, when she learned to
communicate with the help of her teacher, Annie Sullivan. Unlike
many disabled people of her era, Helen refused to live in
seclusion; instead, she achieved fame as a writer, humanitarian,
and social activist. Helen Keller was the first deaf-blind
individual to earn a college degree. Dates: June 27, 1880 --
June 1, 1968 Also Known As: Helen Adams Keller Darkness Descends
Upon Helen KellerHelen Keller was born June 27, 1880 in
Tuscumbia, Alabama to Captain Arthur Keller and Kate Adams
Keller. Captain Keller was a cotton farmer and newspaper editor
and had served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War.
Kate Keller, twenty years his junior, had been born in the
South, but had roots in Massachusetts and was related to
founding father John Adams. Helen was a healthy child un