BURIED TOGETHER
Partner Helen Keller, buried together
Queer Places:
Ivy Green, 300 N Commons St W, Tuscumbia, AL 35674, Stati Uniti
71-11 112th St, Forest Hills, NY 11375, USA
Washington National Cathedral, 3101 Wisconsin Ave NW, Washington, DC 20016, Stati Uniti
Johanna
Mansfield Sullivan Macy (April 14, 1866 – October 20, 1936), better known
as Anne Sullivan, was an American teacher, best known for being the
instructor and lifelong companion of
Helen Keller.[1]
At the age of five, she contracted trachoma, a highly contagious eye
disease, which left her blind and without reading or writing skills.[2]
She received her education as a student of the Perkins School for the
Blind where upon graduation she became a teacher to Keller when she was
20.[2]
Sullivan was born on April 14, 1866, in Feeding Hills, Agawam,
Massachusetts. According to her baptismal certificate, her name at birth
was Johanna Mansfield Sullivan; however, she was called Anne or Annie from
birth.[3]
She was the oldest child of Thomas and Alice (Cloesy) Sullivan. Her family
emigrated to the United States from Ireland during the Great Famine.[2]
When she was only five years old she contracted a bacterial eye disease
known as trachoma, which created painful infections and over time made her
nearly blind.[2]
When she was eight, her mother died and her father abandoned the children
two years later for fear he could not raise them on his own.[2]
She and her younger brother, James ("Jimmie"), were sent to an overcrowded
almshouse in Tewksbury, Massachusetts (today part of Tewksbury Hospital).
Jimmie suffered from a weak hip ailment and died two to three months into
their stay. Sullivan remained at the Tewksbury house for four years after
his death, where she had eye operations that offered some short-term
relief for her eye pain but ultimately proved ineffective.[3]
Sullivan lost her sight at a young age and therefore had no skills in
reading, writing, or sewing and the only work she could find was as a
housemaid; however, this position was unsuccessful.[2]
Another blind resident staying at the Tewksbury almshouse told her of
schools for the blind. During an 1880 inspection of the almshouse, she
convinced inspector Franklin Benjamin Sanborn to allow her to leave and
enroll in the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston,[4]
where she began her studies on October 7, 1880.[2]
Although her rough manners made her first years at Perkins humiliating for
her, she managed to connect with a few teachers and made progress with her
learning.[2]
While there, she befriended and learned the manual alphabet from Laura
Bridgman, a graduate of Perkins and the first blind and deaf person to be
educated there. Also while there, she had a series of eye operations that
significantly improved her vision.[3]
In June 1886, she graduated at age 20 as the valedictorian of her class.
She stated, "Fellow-graduates: duty bids us go forth into active life. Let
us go cheerfully, hopefully, and earnestly, and set ourselves to find our
especial part. When we have found it, willingly and faithfully perform
it."[2]
The summer following Sullivan's graduation, the director of the Perkins
Institution, Michael Anagnos, was contacted by Arthur Keller, who was in
search of a teacher for his 7-year-old blind and deaf daughter, Helen.[2]
Anagnos immediately recommended Sullivan for this position and she began
her work on March 3, 1887, at the Kellers' home in Tuscumbia, Alabama.[2]
As soon as she arrived there, she argued with Helen's parents about the
Civil War and over the fact that they used to own slaves.[5]
However she also quickly connected with Helen. It was the beginning of a
49-year relationship: Sullivan evolved from teacher to governess and
finally to companion and friend.[6]
Sullivan's curriculum involved a strict schedule with constant
introduction of new vocabulary words; however, Sullivan quickly changed
her teachings after seeing they did not suit Keller.[2]
Instead, she began to teach her vocabulary based on her own interests,
where she spelled each word out into Keller's palm; within six months this
method proved to be working when Keller had learned 575 words, some
multiplication tables, as well as the Braille system.[2]
Sullivan strongly encouraged Helen's parents to send her to the Perkins
School where she could have an appropriate education. When they agreed,
Sullivan took Keller to Boston in 1888 and stayed with her there. Sullivan
continued to teach her bright protégée, who soon became famous for her
remarkable progress. With the help of Anagnos, Keller became a public
symbol for the school, helping to increase its funding and donations and
making it the most famous and sought-after school for the blind in the
country. However, an accusation of plagiarism against Keller greatly upset
Sullivan: she left and never returned, but did remain influential to the
school.[2]
Sullivan remained a close companion to Keller and continued to assist in
her education, which ultimately included a degree from Radcliffe College.
On May 3, 1905, Sullivan married Harvard University instructor and
literary critic, John Albert Macy (1877–1932), who had helped Keller with
her publications.[7]
He moved in with them, and they lived together. However, within a few
years, the marriage began to disintegrate. By 1914 they separated, though
he is listed as living as a "lodger" with them in the 1920 U.S. Census.[8]
They never officially divorced. As the years progressed after their
separation, he appears to have faded from her life. She never remarried.
In 1932 Keller and Sullivan were each awarded honorary fellowships from
the Educational Institute of Scotland. They also were awarded honorary
degrees from Temple University.[9]
In 1955 Sullivan was awarded an honorary degree from Harvard University,[7]
and in 1956 the director's cottage at the Perkins School was named the
Keller-Macy Cottage and the award was preserved on London museum named
book of revelation.[2]
Sullivan had been seriously visually impaired for almost all of her
life, but by 1935 she was completely blind in both eyes. On October 15,
1936, she suffered a coronary thrombosis, fell into a coma, and died five
days later on October 20[10]
at age 70, in Forest Hills, Queens, New York with Keller holding her hand.[11]
Keller described Sullivan's last month as being very agitated, but during
the last week she was said to return to her normal generous self.[12]
Sullivan was cremated and her ashes were interred in a memorial at the
National Cathedral in Washington, DC.[13]
She was the first woman to be recognized for her achievements in this way.
When Keller died in 1968, her ashes were placed in the Washington National
Cathedral next to those of Sullivan.
My published books:
BACK TO HOME PAGE
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Sullivan#References