SNIPPET: Remarkable Anne SULLIVAN was to give Helen KELLER her cheerful spirit and perseverance as well as teaching her Braille and guiding her to understandable speech. (See Ms. KELLER's letter below). Their relationship is explored in the extraordinary film, "The Miracle Worker." Afflicted with poor sight herself, teacher Anne SULLIVAN(1866-1936), daughter of immigrants from Co. Limerick, arrived from Boston to meet the extremely wild and unruly 7-year-old Helen Adams KELLER (1880-1968) to help her conquer her physical handicaps. A serious illness, which was diagnosed as brain fever, had destroyed Helen's sight and hearing before she was two, leaving the beautiful little girl unable to communicate with others. (Helen was born in Tuscumbia, AL). Anne SULLIVAN was able to make contact with the girl's mind through the sense of touch. She worked out an alphabet of sorts by which she spelled out words on Helen's hand. Gradually, the child was able to connect words!with objects. Helen also "listened" to others speak by putting her middle finger on the speaker's nose, forefinger on the lips, and thumb on the larynx. Helen learned to speak herself and by the time she was 16, she could speak well en! ough to go to preparatory school and to Radcliffe college, from which she was graduated in 1904 with honors. Anne SULLIVAN stayed with Helen through these years, interpreting lectures and class discussions to her. The two women remained companions even after SULLIVAN married John A. MACY. When Anne died, Mary Agnes "Polly" THOMSON (1885-1950), who had been Miss KELLER's secretary, took her place. After college, Helen KELLER became concerned with the conditions of the blind and deaf-blind and became active on the staffs of the American Foundation for the Blind and of the American Foundation for Overseas Blind. She appeared before legislatures, gave lectures, and wrote books (including autobiographies) and articles and traveled to 25 countries promoting better conditions for the handicapped. During WW-II, Helen worked for soldiers who had been blinded in the war and received many honors from governments all over the world. Helen wrote a letter to an acquaintance in November of 1935 describing her meetings with two renowned operatic tenors - John McCORMACK (1884-1945)of Co. Westmeath,and Enrico CARUSO (1873-1921) and "hearing" them sing by feeling the vibrations of their voices. Excerpt from letter -- "Once we happened to be at the hotel where McCormack was staying. His publicity man arranged to have him sing "My Wild Irish Rose" for me. A number of the singer's friends and ours were gathered in the sitting-room for the performance. I was all expectation and excitement. My fingers were on his lips, but no sound came from them for several seconds. Then he cried, "I can't, I can't" his tears wet my hand, and turning away he ran into his bedroom. I loved him for that tenderness which seemed to me the flower of the Irish heart. How different Caruso was when we met under similar circumstances! ... When I entered his room, Caruso was being shaved. A pretty girl was manicuring his nails... "Ah! you have come," Caruso said, and seized my two hands and clapped them on his great chest, which was bare, and with almost terrifying intensity burst into Sampson's lament over his blindness. I never dreamed that a human chest could expand as his did, nor that a throat could emit such a volume of sound. ....To come back to "My Wild Irish Rose," I love it because I remember my teacher as a wild Irish rose when she came to me. It is no hyperbole to say that when I touched that rose, happiness skipped to my side. The wild-rose tells a wondrous story in my life of growth and beauty. Its perfume is the fragrance of God's Goodness and of a Love that passeth knowledge... Helen"