61 comments

  1. Her classmates at Radcliff gave her a Boston Terrier! So sad about her family preventing her from marrying!

    1. No not sad at all..Helen was a wonderful woman but she was DEAF AND BLIND and maybe this peter this dude should have took advantage of her handicaps and fame too ..we will never know what he really wanted if he loved her..maybe he felt attached to Helen but you may understand that HELEN HAD A DOUBLE INFIRMITY.. could you live with a person both blind and deaf? If she had been blind or only deaf it would have been fully possible but not in her situation!! You have to be realistic..she later confirmed that she understood peter’s decision that she would have been a burden..She constantly needed the help of Ann or polly to translate her what people said to her and fingerspelling..it would have been hard for a man to live with her .Life isn’t just about love.This man should have been her guide and total caretaker..a difficult task!! I love Helen keller however but i couldn’t have seen her married..it would have been very complicated even if i admire her and Annie sullivan.

  2. Thank you for this post. What a beautiful person. I love this story.

  3. This story is world renowned and Alabamians either are unaware of the existence of Ivy Green in Tuscumbia or they take it for granted. It is a rich and rewarding experience to visit the museum and to view the live performance of “The Miracle Worker”. The play is in Helen’s backyard and is Broadway Quality.

  4. I got a book about her when I was little and loved it. I now live in the southern part of Alabama. I look forward to seeing her home sometime.

  5. So amazing to see.

  6. Great read, and love the pictures.

  7. It’s such a shame that some still hate her for her work with the poor, and working people of her day. She took the circumstances of her situation to try and help others. For that she was given grief? Some things in Alabama never seem to change. I use to live in a house, on a street in Tuscumbia that sat on the ground of the former plantation. I was grown before learning of her efforts, because that was not promoted here. She would not won’t to be remembered any other way.

    1. I recently took my daughter and her friend to Ivy Green. Wonderful and educational trip. Helen Keller was astounding!

    2. I recently took my daughter and her friend to Ivy Green. Wonderful and educational trip. Helen Keller was astounding!

    3. You are correct Sir….I also grew up in that area and knew nothing of her history…and thats a shame…We moved away over 30 years ago but took our children there to her home on our vacation

  8. She did so much for humanity. The Blind and the Deaf.

  9. My daughter’s 4th grade class just finished learning about Helen Keller. I decided to take my daughter and a friend to Ivy Green during spring break to help bring to life what they had studied and learned about Helen. It was a great trip and very educational. The girls loved it.

  10. My daughter’s 4th grade class just finished learning about Helen Keller. I decided to take my daughter and a friend to Ivy Green during spring break to help bring to life what they had studied and learned about Helen. It was a great trip and very educational. The girls loved it.

  11. When Helen visited Japan, she was given a Japanese breed of dog, an Akita, as a gift. It was the first dog of that breed in America .

  12. It was so nice to tour her home in Tuscumbia!

  13. It was so nice to tour her home in Tuscumbia!

  14. Put Hellen Keller on our money, if you want a real accomplished Woman to honor!

    1. How about no…… She was a devout socialist

    2. Can you give some proof? If you’re correct I will retract my comment.

    3. Well she was a member of the national socialist party. You can look her up on Wikipedia

  15. It defies logic that she was such friends with Margaret Sanger, when Sanger would have seen her destroyed due to her disabilities at birth.

    1. I don’t know if the espoused efforts of Margaret Sanger were lost on Helen Keller or if she read any of her writings. Perhaps Sanger only was racist and classist, and only belived her idealology was for those like Helen Keller who could afford to rise above. The irony however is not lost on me.

  16. A distant relative she was amazing!

  17. Beth Lewis Williams

  18. Very interesting!!!

  19. Has everyone forgotten about her being a socialist?

  20. My wife’s grandmother and Helen were cousins, and played together when they were young.

  21. Christina Pruitt Sullivan

  22. My grandfather was born in Tuscumbia in 1902. I believe our families knew each other.

  23. She has been my hero since I learned about her in 4th grade some 30 years ago

  24. Katie Flannagan Dalrymple

  25. New at this. Can someone tell me if there is a site for death records to go to?

  26. I enjoyed this so

  27. Wonderful! I have always been fascinated with Helen Keller. I loved the old videos! I never knew she was in love. Sad.

    1. I’m glad you enjoyed it. There are so many things we do not know about our history. That is the purpose of this site, to find them and share them.

  28. As a child , I got to meet her and her teacher. Miss Keller made guttural sounds, and her teacher interpreted.
    She and that AFL-CIO leader were among my favorites among famous people. He had a uni-brow. I’d never seen one, and I loved it.
    I’m glad so many world famous people are from Alabama❤️

  29. Wow, thank goodness she never gave up.

  30. What a gallant lady. She never once gave up. She traveled a road unimaginably difficult. That is true bravery.

  31. […] about many of the people buried here. There is a copy of this book available for public use at the Helen Keller Library in Tuscumbia, […]

  32. Good you and I am deaf

  33. Lovely story for the most part, but she was a member of the socialist party.

    1. Good. Didn’t know that about her. Makes me admire and respect her even more.

    2. Sharon Jones Not me. Socialism has never worked anywhere, and never will.

    3. Susan Mashburn Connelly That is simply not true.

    4. Susan Mashburn Connelly Yeah, socialism is just fine with you as long as it benefits the millionaires and billionaires. It’s only when it benefits the middle class or the poor you have a problem with it.

    5. Sharon Jones when has socialism ever benefited the poor?

  34. Her childhood home is a great place to visit in Alabama.

  35. She was a child of privilege. Had she been poor, she would have never been known to the world. Perhaps she felt compassion for others less fortunate.

  36. Helen Keller was an international ambassador. Thank God her family had the means to educate her or she could not have shared her gifts with the world.