Helen Keller

Helen Keller
Actor	Amanda Richer
Seen	8 Footsteps
Gender	Female
Status	Historical
Relationships	Anne Sullivan Macy, teacher and companion Alexander Graham Bell, benefactor
Job	Author and political activist
Comments	This is an article about a fictional representation of an historical character, location or other entity.

Helen Adams Keller was born a healthy child in Tuscumbia, Alabama (U.S.A.), on June 27, 1880. At less than 2 years old, Helen Keller suffered a fever that left her blind and deaf. Although she developed a rudimentary sign language with which to communicate, as a child she was isolated, unruly, and prone to wild tantrums, and some members of her family considered institutionalizing her. Seeking to improve her condition, in 1886 her parents traveled to Baltimore, Maryland, to see an oculist who had had some success in dealing with conditions of the eye. After examining Keller, however, he told her parents that he could not restore her sight, but suggested that she could still be educated, referring them to Alexander Graham Bell, who despite having achieved worldwide fame, was working with deaf children in Washington, D.C. ^[1] They appear together in Season 11 of Murdoch Mysteries.

History

Helen became deaf and blind as a result of an unknown illness, perhaps rubella or scarlet fever. As Helen grew from infancy into childhood, she became wild and unruly.  As she so often remarked as an adult, her life changed on March 3, 1887. On that day, Anne Mansfield Sullivan came to Tuscumbia to be her teacher. Anne's success with Helen remains an extraordinary and remarkable story and is best known to people because of the film The Miracle Worker.

From a very young age, Helen was determined to go to college. In 1898, she entered the Cambridge School for Young Ladies to prepare for Radcliffe College. Alexander Graham Bell coordinated the effort to establish a trust fund for Heller Keller that she used to pay for her schooling at Radcliffe College. She entered Radcliffe in the fall of 1900 and received a Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude in 1904, the first deaf-blind person to do so.

While still a student at Radcliffe, Helen began a writing career that was to continue throughout her life. In 1903, her autobiography, The Story of My Life, was published. This had appeared in serial form the previous year in Ladies' Home Journal magazine. [2]

Appearances and Mentions

8 Footsteps

• Helen Keller is honoured guest at a charity dinner held in the Windsor House Hotel along with Anne Sullivan. The event is hosted by Alexander Graham Bell, with Dr. Ogden, Detective Murdoch and Miss Ruth Newsome in attendance.

Trivia

• Helen Keller is portrayed  by Amanda Richer, who is a good friend of Georgina Reilly, who played Emily Grace on the show.