Anne Sullivan Anne Sullivan Johanna Mansfield Sullivan Macy (April 14, 1866 – October 20, 1936), better known as Anne Sullivan, was an American teacher, best known for being the instructor and lifelong companion of Helen Keller. At the age of five, Sullivan contracted trachoma, an eye disease, which left her blind and without reading or writing skills. She received her education as a student of the Perkins School for the Blind where upon graduation she became a teacher to Keller when she was 20. Sullivan was born on April 14, 1866, in Feeding Hills, Agawam, Massachusetts. According to her baptismal certificate, her
Anne Sullivan honorary degrees from Temple University. In 1955 Keller was awarded an honorary degree from Harvard University, and in 1956 the director's cottage at the Perkins School was named the Keller-Macy Cottage. In 2003, Sullivan was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. Sullivan had been seriously visually impaired for almost all of her life, but by 1935 she was completely blind in both eyes. On October 15, 1936, she had a coronary thrombosis, fell into a coma, and died five days later on October 20 at age 70, in Forest Hills, Queens, New York with Keller holding her hand.