Anne Sullivan Macy was an American educator, best known for her work as Helen Keller's teacher. Born in Feeding Hills, Massachusetts, on April 14, 1866, she was named Joanna Mansfield Sullivan, but was always called Anne or Annie.

Sullivan's youth was not a happy one. As a child, an infection damaged her eyes, causing them to weaken throughout her early life until she was nearly blind. Her mother died of tuberculosis when she was 8, and her father deserted Sullivan and her siblings three years later. At age 11, Sullivan and her lame brother were sent to the state poorhouse in Tewksbury.

She lived in the almshouse for four years. One day, during a visit by the State Board of Charities, Sullivan asked a board member if she could go to school. The board agreed, and in 1880 Sullivan was assigned to the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts. While a...