Anne Sullivan Macy
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Categories: 1866 births | 1936 deaths | American educationists | American educators | Irish-Americans | Language teachers | Vaudeville performers
Anne Sullivan Macy, Annie Sullivan, or Johanna Mansfield Sullivan Macy, (April 14, 1866 – October 20, 1936) was a teacher best known as the tutor of Helen Keller.
BiographyAnne Sullivan was born in Feeding Hills, a subsection of the town of Agawam, Massachusetts. Her parents, Thomas Sullivan and Alice Clohessy, were impoverished cooks who left Ireland in 1847 during the Potato Famine. Anne Sullivan’s father taught her Irish tradition and folklore. Her mother suffered from tuberculosis and died when Anne was nine. When she was ten, Anne had to move in with a relative, who later sent her and her brother to the Tewksbury Almshouse (today Tewksbury Hospital). [1] Anne Sullivan spent her time there with her younger brother, Jimmie, in hopes that they would not be separated; however, his condition resulting from a tubercular hip weakened him and he died a few months later. When Anne Sullivan was three she began having trouble with her eyesight; at age five, she contracted the eye disease trachoma, a bacterial infection that often causes blindness by scarring. Sullivan underwent a long string of surgeries. Doctors in Tewksbury had made a few vain attempts to clean her eyelids. Later, Father Barbara, the chaplain of the nearest hospital, took it upon himself to arrange a procedure. This operation failed to correct her vision. Still more attempts were made. Father Barbara took her to the Boston City Infirmary (today Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary [2] [3]) this time, where she had two more operations. Even after this attempt her vision remained blurry. Sullivan returned to Tewksbury, against her will. After four years there, in 1880, she entered the Perkins School for the Blind where she underwent surgery and regained some of her sight. After regaining her eyesight and graduating as class valedictorian in 1886, the director of the Perkins Institute for the Blind, Michael Anagnos, encouraged her to teach Helen Keller.[4] Image:Helen Keller with Anne Sullivan in July 1888.jpg
Sullivan with an 8-year-old Keller while vacationing at Cape Cod in July 1888
She moved in with her charge and, acting as governess, taught Keller the names of things with the sign language alphabet signed into Keller's palm. The first word Helen learned was "doll". Her second word was "water". In 1888, they went to the Perkins Institution together, then New York City's Wright-Humasen School, then the Cambridge School for Young Ladies, and finally to Radcliffe College. Keller graduated from Radcliffe in 1904 and after that, they moved together to Wrentham, Massachusetts, and lived on a benefactor's farm. In 1905, Sullivan married a Harvard University professor, John A. Macy, who had helped Keller with her autobiography, and who was 11 years her junior. Within a few years, their marriage began to disintegrate. By 1914 they separated, though they never officially divorced. In the early years after their separation John would write and ask for money; however, as the years progressed he appears to have faded from her life. Macy died at the age of 55 in 1932. Sullivan stayed with Keller at her home and joined her on tours. In 1935, she became completely blind. She died in Forest Hills, New York, on October 20, 1936. A public school, PS 238, in the neighborhood of Gravesend, Brooklyn, NY was named in her honor. Media representationAnne Sullivan is a major character in The Miracle Worker, by William Gibson, originally produced for television, where she was portrayed by Teresa Wright [5]. It then moved to Broadway, and was later produced as a 1962 feature film. Both the Broadway play and 1962 film featured Anne Bancroft in the Anne Sullivan role.[6] Patty Duke—who played Helen Keller in the 1962 film version—later played Anne Sullivan in a 1979 television remake.[7] The most recent portrayal was by Alison Elliot in a 2000 television movie.[8] References
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