The Washington Daily News
Item Information
- Title:
- The Washington Daily News
- Description:
-
One spot remote from politics yesterday was the chapel at Washington Cathedral, where commitment services were held for the ashes of Helen Keller's great teacher, Mrs. Anne Sullivan Macy. Hardly more than 100 people were present and 25 per cent heard the services thru somebody's fingers or by reading the lip movements of Bishop James E. Freeman and Canon Anson Phelps Stokes. Miss Keller herself heard thru the fingers of her companion, Polly Tompson. Twenty-five young men and women came from Gallaudet College, where the government gives higher education to youths who are deaf and dumb. Called 'Great Teacher' Bishop Freeman called Mrs. Macy, who taught Miss Keller to speak and to understand the words of others, 'the greatest teacher of all time.' Miss Keller say inconspicuously in the front row chair, in the small chapel of St. Joseph of Arimathea. She was attractively dressed in a black wool suit, small black hat, silk stocking and smart black shoes. Beside her sat her companion, Miss Tompson, also in black, with a silver fox fur. Miss Tompson's fingers translated Bishop Freeman's words. "In bringing light and understanding to the mind of Helen Keller," the Bishop's deep voice continued, "Mrs. Macy gave the world one of the rarest women of our generation." 'Example of Service' "In a period that is characterized by a quest for material things and material values, the work of Mrs. Macy furnishes an example of Christian service and devotion that encourages us to believe that the ministry of Christ is not without witnesses in our modern age." After the public chapel service, the urn containing Mrs. Macy's ashes was placed in a niche in an adjoining crypt. In the chapel proper are buried Dr. W. H. Wilmer, Washington's great eye surgeon; James Parmelee, wealthy Cathedral benefactor, and Edgar Priest, Cathedral organist who used to play for Mrs. Macy and Miss Keller when the two lived near the Cathedral, 20 years ago. Thru Mrs. Macy's teaching, Miss Keller overcame the combined handicap of blindness and deafness, the latter causing inability to talk. Mrs. Macy died Oct. 20, after devoting 40 years to her pupil.
- Name on Item:
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Washington Daily News
- Date:
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1936
- Format:
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Newspapers
- Genre:
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Clippings
- Location:
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Perkins School for the Blind
Samuel P. Hayes Research Library - Collection (local):
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Condolence Letters and Clippings
- Subjects:
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Blind
Perkins School for the Blind
- Permalink:
- https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/b85164169
- Terms of Use:
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Samuel P. Hayes Research Library, Perkins School for the Blind, Watertown, MA
Contact host institution for more information.
- Notes:
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Newspaper clipping from the Washington Daily News. Headline: Bishop Praises Mrs. Macy in Simple Cathedral Rites. Photograph of Helen Keller with her secretary Polly Thomson with caption: "Helen Keller (left), deaf and blind writer and lecturer, is guided from the Cathedral chapel by her secretary, Polly Tompson, after services yesterday for the late Mrs. Anne Sullivan Macy, who for 40 years was Miss Keller's teacher."
- Accession #:
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AG88-n-14
