Anne Sullivan Biography

Anne Sullivan was a skilled educator most remembered for her work with Helen Keller, a deaf and blind child whom she trained to converse. Sullivan, who was only 20 years old at the time, had considerable maturity and resourcefulness in her education of Keller, and she worked tirelessly with her pupil, earning both women acclaim. Keller even enlisted Sullivan's assistance in writing her memoirs.

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Childhood

Anne Mansfield Sullivan was born in Feeding Hills, Agawam, Massachusetts, on April 14, 1866. Her birth name was Johanna Mansfield Sullivan, as per her baptismal certificate, but she was always known as Anne or Annie. She has been the oldest child of Thomas and Alice (Cloesy) Sullivan, who fled Ireland during the Great Famine and settled in the United States. Sullivan got trachoma, a bacterial eye illness that caused numerous severe infections and nearly blinded her when she was five years old. Her mother died of tuberculosis when she became eight years old, and her father abandoned the children two years later, fearing he wouldn't be able to manage them on his own.

Anne Sullivan's Brother- Anne Sullivan's younger brother, James (Jimmie), was taken to a run-down and overcrowded almshouse in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, which is now part of Tewksbury Hospital, and their younger sister, Mary, was put in the care of an aunt. Jimmie was suffering from a weak hip and died of tuberculosis four months into their stay. After his death, Anne stayed at Tewksbury and underwent two unsuccessful eye procedures.

Anne was transferred to the Soeurs de la Charite hospital in Lowell, Massachusetts, in February 1877, where she underwent another failed operation. She remained in the convent, helping the sisters in the wards and running errands in the community until July of that year when she was relocated under coercion to the city infirmary, where she underwent one more fruitless operation before being transported back to Tewksbury. She was placed among single mothers and unmarried pregnant women rather than returning to the facility for mostly ill and mad people.

Anne begged Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, then State Inspector of Charities, to accept her to the Perkins School for the Blind throughout a later investigation to Tewksbury in 1880. Her plea was accepted within a few months.

Education

On October 7, 1880, Anne started her education at the Perkins School. She succeeded in making friends with a few teachers and making progress in her studies during her first years at Perkins. Laura Bridgman, a graduate of Perkins and the first blind and deaf person to be educated there, became her friend and taught her the manual alphabet while she was there.

She graduated as the valedictorian of her class at the age of twenty in June 1886. She explained:

Fellow graduates: It is our duty to go out into the world and make a difference. Let us go forward happily, hopeful, and determinedly in search of our unique role. When we find it, we must joyfully and faithfully carry it out; every difficulty we conquer, every accomplishment we gain helps to draw man closer to God and make life more as He would want it.

Career

The director of Perkins, Michael Anagnos, was called by Arthur Keller, who was looking for a teacher for his seven-year-old blind and deaf daughter, Helen, the summer after Sullivan's graduation. Miss Sullivan was hired on March 3, 1887, at the Kellers' home in Tuscumbia, Alabama, after Anagnos suggested her for the job. She began arguing with Helen's parents about the Civil War and the fact that they used to own slaves as soon as she reached. She did, however, strike up a quick friendship with Helen. It was the start of a 49-year relationship in which Sullivan progressed from instructor to governess to companion and friend.

Sullivan's curriculum included a rigid schedule and the regular introduction of new vocabulary words; but, when she realised that her methods were not working for Keller, she rapidly adjusted her methods. Instead, she began teaching Keller language based on her own interests, spelling every word into Keller's palm; within six months, Keller had mastered 575 words, as well as some arithmetic tables and the Braille system. Helen's parents were heavily persuaded by Sullivan to transfer her to the Perkins School, where she could receive a proper education.

Following their agreement, Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan together drove to Boston in 1888 and stayed with her. Sullivan continued to mentor her bright protégée, who became well-known for her rapid advancement. Keller had become a public symbol for the school with the support of the school's director, Anagnos, helping to raise funds and contributions and creating it the most well-known and sought-after institution for the blind in the country. Sullivan, on the other hand, was deeply offended by a plagiarism claim levelled against Keller: she departed and never returned, but she remained important at the school. Sullivan became Keller's close friend and continued to help her with her education, which culminated in a Radcliffe College diploma.

Personal life

On May 3, 1905, Sullivan married John Albert Macy (1877–1922), a Harvard University educator and literary critic who had assisted Keller with her books. Sullivan had already been living with Keller as her personal teacher (Helen Keller teacher) when she married, so Macy relocated into both women's homes. The marriage, however, began to fall apart after only a few years. They split up by 1914, yet he is recorded as a "lodger" with them in the 1920 U.S. Census. Macy seems to go from her life as the years passed after their divorce, and the two never legally separated. Sullivan did not remarry.

Awards

The Educational Institute of Scotland honoured Keller and Sullivan honorary fellowships in 1932. Temple University also bestowed honorary degrees on them. Keller received an honorary degree from Harvard University in 1955, and the Keller-Macy Cottage at the Perkins School was named after him in 1956. The National Women's Hall of Fame inducted Sullivan in 2003.

Death

Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan information tells us that Sullivan had been severely sight-impaired for virtually her whole life, but she was blind in both eyes by 1935. She suffered a coronary thrombosis on October 15, 1936, went into a coma, and died five days later, on October 20, at the age of 70, in the Forest Hills section of Queens, with Keller by her side. Keller described Sullivan's previous month as agitated, but she was claimed to have returned to her normal generous self in the final week. Sullivan was cremated and her ashes were placed in a memorial at Washington, D.C.'s National Cathedral.

She was the very first woman to be honoured in this fashion for her efforts. Keller's ashes were interred next to those of her Helen Keller teacher, Sullivan, when she died in 1968.

Media representation

Anne Sullivan information tells us that Sullivan is the primary character in William Gibson's The Miracle Worker, which was first broadcast on television in 1957 and starred Teresa Wright. The Miracle Worker was subsequently transferred to Broadway, where it was later adapted into a feature picture in 1962. Anne Bancroft played Sullivan in both the play and the film.

Patty Duke, who portrayed Keller on Broadway and in the 1962 film, went on to play Sullivan in a 1979 television production of the play. In the TV movie Monday After the Miracle, Roma Downey played her (1998). In a 2000 television movie, Alison Elliott played her. In a short-lived 2010 Broadway production, Alison Pill played her with Abigail Breslin as Keller.