Anne Sullivan Macy (born Johanna Mansfield Sullivan, April 14, 1866 – October 20, 1936) was an Irish-American teacher best known for helping Helen Keller and being her lifelong companion (and, Keller would say, liberator).
Annie herself was partially blind after having trachoma as a child. After several horrific years at the Massachusetts state almshouse at Tewkesbury (warehousing for unwed mothers, prostitutes and the "pauper insane"), and witnessing the death of her brother from tuberculosis of the bone, Annie escaped by calling attention to her situation in front of a group of state inspectors out to reform such places. She had a couple of partially successful eye surgeries and was educated at the Perkins School for the Blind, graduating with honors as valedictorian. (While the attitude towards Irish people as not "white", or at least as not quite human, was lessening in the 1880s, there was still some prejudice on the part of the high class "Boston Brahmins" who funded the Perkins school, and to have an Irish-American peasant girl representing the class of '87 and giving the farewell address was somewhat controversial. Annie broke many barriers in her lifetime.)
As she'd become close friends with Perkins graduate and full-time resident Laura Bridgman, the first deaf-blind person to receive a full education, she was fluent in the manual alphabet used to communicate with deaf-blind people. When Helen's mother wrote to Perkins asking if they knew of someone who could communicate with and educate Helen, Annie was thought the most suitable person. She was 20.
She was with Helen all the way through her university studies at Radcliffe, spelling out all the lectures to her and reading her all the books that couldn't be gotten in Braille. Many people still feel Annie should have received a degree herself along with Helen, who graduated cum laude in 1904. She did get a couple of honorary degrees from other institutions.
She was married to John Albert Macy in 1905. He was a literature professor at Harvard and an ardent socialist, who explained socialism to Helen and was partly responsible for her embracing that political philosophy.
Sullivan died in 1936 at the age of 70 after suffering coronary thrombosis.
Media
Film- The Miracle Worker: She was played by Teresa White in the original play, Anne Bancroft in the 1962 version and Patty Duke in the 1979.
