Helen Keller was born into a world of sight and sound on June 27, 1880. The next twelve months of her childhood were much like other children's in Tuscumbia, Alabama. Then a brain fever destroyed her sight and hearing, plunging her into a lifetime of darkness and silence.

Known as the "little bronco," due to her stubborn and unruly behavior, Helen was indulged by her family. Discipline followed Anne Sullivan's arrival to teach her.

Nearly blind herself in childhood, Miss Sullivan had recovered most of her sight through surgery. She received her instruction at the Perkins Institute for the blind in Boston and devoted her life to teaching Helen.

Miss Sullivan taught Helen deaf and dumb language by spelling each letter in Helen's hand. Quickly, Helen learned the alphabet. By the time she was eleven, Helen could read Braille and write it by using a special typewriter.

After learning to write, she took speech lessons from Sarah Fuller at the Horace Mann School for the Deaf in Boston. At age sixteen, she could speak well enough to attend prep school.

She attended the Wright-Hamason School for the Deaf in New York and then Cambridge School for Young Ladies. Miss Sullivan accompanied Helen to class and interpreted the lectures to Helen through their touch alphabet.

Miss Sullivan also attended class with Helen at Radcliffe College. Helen's textbooks were in Braille and she used her own typewriter when taking exams. In 1904, Helen graduated with honors from Radcliffe.

After graduation, Helen worked to support herself. She made lecture tours and wrote several books. She was involved in the making of a motion picture based on her life. For two years, she even appeared in vaudeville. Her goal in these endeavors was to support herself and to stimulate public interest in the problems of the handicapped.

Helen worked for the American Foundation for the Blind. She became especially interested in the blind of underdeveloped and war-ravaged countries and began working for the American Foundation for Overseas Blind. She also started the two million dollar Helen Keller Endowment Fund.

To raise money for blind and deaf-blind people, Helen conducted speaking tours on five continents. After World War II, Helen visited American veterans' hospitals and toured Europe, Asia, and Africa. Although it was impossible for her to recognize someone by face or voice, she could remember a person by his handshake. And wherever she went, she brought cheer and encouragement to the handicapped.

Tall, strongly built and in good health, she lived to be 88.