Teacher

The story of Anne Sullivan’s life once it became linked to Helen Keller’s life is known. Less familiar is Sullivan’s life before she arrived in Alabama in 1887. Johanna Mansfield “Anne” Sullivan was born on April 15, 1866.

- Andrew Matthews

Her parents had immigrated to Massachusetts from Ireland, but they were uneducated and did not have a skill or trade that allowed them to support their family. Life was hard, and the Sullivans struggled to get by. By the time Anne was five years old, her vision was severely impacted by trachoma. Then, her mother died in 1874. Her father abandoned Anne and her younger brother, Jimmie, two years later.

With no one to take care of them, Anne and Jimmie were sent to an almshouse. Anne was almost completely blind, and Jimmie was not in good health. Conditions in the almshouse were brutal for children, and within a few months, Jimmie died. Ten-year-old Anne was left without friends or family.

During an inspection of the facility in 1880, Anne gathered her courage to ask one of the officials to be allowed to live and attend classes at the Perkins Institution, a school in Boston for children who were blind. It was arranged for her to start school that fall, but 14-year-old