The Life and Death of a Noble Woman
Item Information
- Title:
- The Life and Death of a Noble Woman
- Description:
-
On Tuesday last, there was weeping on earth and rejoicing in Heaven. A golden spirit had winged its way into eternity. In her seventieth year, Anne Sullivan Macy peacefully breathed her last. There has never been a woman quite like her, and perhaps there never will be. In the Bible, we are told, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for another: -- but Anne Sullivan Macy did more than die for someone else -- she gave fifty years of her life to make another great. Almost like God, she performed a miracle of miracles. Her name may not be known to you, but her pupil's fame has been heralded from one end of the earth to the other. Wherever man and women read, the unprecedented story of Helen Keller stirs admiration and tears. And without Anne Sullivan Macy, Helen Keller stirs admiration and tears. And without Anne Sullivan Macy, Helen Keller would probably have lived and died, miserable, unhappy, one of those whom Nature forgot. As Helen Keller once said, "What a person like myself needs is not a teacher, but another self," and Anne was that other self. Who was this remarkable self-sacrificing woman -- a heroine equal to the mightiest? Her beginnings were hard beyond description ... She herself was born half-blind. ... Anne knew only hard work, tears, despair at its blackest. One day this nearly-blind girl, pitifully asked if she might get some kind of education, just enough to read and write... At fourteen she entered Perkins Institute for the Blind in Massachusetts, where kind people had her eyes operated upon and gave her an education. The young woman took on hope and courage. Then came her big moment. From far away Alabama came a southern aristocrat. Into his home a great tragedy had come. His seven year old daughter was deaf, dumb, blind. Was there someone in this world who would undertake to teach a child who was completely cut off from the world? Anne Sullivan knew the misery of blindness, and her heart had not forgotten the suffering of her early years. Yes, she would go down to Alabama and try. It was a superhuman task, -- how could anybody tech anything to a child who could not see, hear, or speak? Slowly and with infinite patience, the twenty-one year old teacher began her divine work. Of Helen's fingers she made ears, and then she gave her a tongue to speak. Can you, my friends, imagine the enormity of that task? I cannot. To this day, I do not understand how this miracle of education was performed. But the fact remains, -- Anne Sullivan taught Helen Keller to hear and understand with her hands, to speak words which her ears could not hear. Under the wonderful wisdom and ingenuity of this teacher, the miracle-woman of all history actually went to college, graduated with the highest honors, and today, at fifty-six years of age, she can speak in public, understand what you say be feeling your throat, and has written some of the most inspiring books in the English language. The impossible [end of document]
- Name on Item:
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Jacob Tarshish
- Date:
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1936
- Format:
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Documents
Manuscripts
- 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/b85164347
- Terms of Use:
-
Samuel P. Hayes Research Library, Perkins School for the Blind, Watertown, MA
Contact host institution for more information.
- Notes:
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Article by Jacob Tarshish, of The Lamplighter titled: "The Life and Death of a Noble Woman" with headline: "Mutual Broadcasting System, WOR WLW WJJD CKLW KWK WBAL WCAE, on Sunday October 25, 1936.
- Accession #:
-
AG88-n-21
