Helen Keller

One day a baby girl was born, her name was Helen Keller. She was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama on June 27, 1880. When Helen was one and a half she had Scarlet Fever, which no one could cure. Soon her fever was over, unfortunatly there were bad effects, and she ended up being blind, deaf, and dumb. She also had a bad temper, which was very annoying to the rest of her family, which included mom, dad, and little sister Mildred. When she was nine she didn’t know it was her birthday. She smelled the fragrant smell of a cake (she liked sweets a lot). She came running in to try the cake but her mother stopped because it was supposed to be a surprise. Later she went upstairs and was mad at her mother for not giving her the cake (because she didn’t understand it was her birthday) and her family ate the cake without Helen.

Her family couldn't stand it anymore, so they went to find a person to help her. After a few months of traveling they found a teacher, her name was Anne Sullivan. Anne helped Helen by teaching her how to speak a special sign language. Helen loved Anne almost as much as her parents. Helen’s parents felt the same way about Anne.

Soon Helen went on her first vacation to Cape Cod on a train. When Helen was ten she started writing poems and stories, and reading. Her parents and Anne were fascinated, and full of joy. Helen really wanted to go to college. But she had to go to a different school, a school for people like her. After 4 years in that school, she graduated and was taken in by Radcliff College. She didn’t care what college it was. She only cared if she learned well. In Helen’s last year at school Anne’s eyes started to hurt but she wouldn’t stop helping Helen. John Masey, a teacher like Anne, started helping Helen instead. Helen thought that John was fond of Anne. She was right! Helen left college with honors.

After college Helen’s dad had died causing it to be a very sad time in Helen’s life. A few weeks later John and Anne had a beautiful, colorful, wedding. This was one of Helen’s most joyful moments. All three of them moved to a beautiful home on the West Coast. Helen decided to be a lecturer and a writer even though Anne and the others said she should be a teacher and pass on what Anne taught her.

Helen wrote 14 books. The Story of My Life won a Pulitzer Prize and a Newberry Award. Helen also went around the world lecturing to people. Later she went to talk to the government about making more books for the blind. Eventually the government listened to her and made more books with braille.

Soon John had died, and Helen and Anne were the saddest they’d ever been. A year later Anne died. Helen cried for weeks and weeks. Anne and Helen were together her whole life and now Helen felt alone. A few years passed and Helen learned how to whisper. She wished Anne could hear her speaking now. Another month passed and Helen could speak more clearly. Helen died a few years later in 1966, at the age of 88.

http://www.afb.org/Section.asp?SectionID=1
http://www.afb.org/braillebug/helen_keller_bio.asp
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hkeller.htm 
http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Helen_Keller/
http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/publicwebsite/public_keller.hcsp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Keller

By Stan and Kevin, fourth grade, 1999

BACK