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 name at birth was Johanna Mansfield Sullivan; however, she was called Anne or Annie from birth. She was the oldest child of Thomas and Alice (Cloesy) Sullivan. Her family emigrated to the United States from Ireland during the Great Famine. When she was only five years old she contracted a bacterial eye disease known as trachoma, which created painful infections and over time made her nearly blind. When she was eight, her mother died, and her father abandoned the children two years later for fear he could not raise them on his own. She and her younger brother, James ("Jimmie"),