Breaking Barriers: The Inspiring Journey of Helen Keller.

"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow." ~Helen Keller

Helen Adams Keller was an American author, disability rights advocate, political activist and lecturer. She was also blind and deaf. 

Born on June 27th, 1880, in West Tuscumbia, Alabama, Helen started speaking when she was just 6 months old and started walking at the age of 1. Sadly, Helen lost her sight and her hearing after contracting "brain fever" when she was only 19 months old. 

By the time Helen was seven years old, she and Martha Washington, the family cook's daughter, had developed a type of sign language. During this time Helen was very frustrated and became unruly. She tormented Martha and inflicted raging tantrums on her parents leaving many relatives to feel that she should be institutionalized. 

Desperate to help her, her parents sought the advice of Alexander Grahm Bell, who was working with deaf children at the time. Bell suggested the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston. While at the institute, it was suggested that the family work with one of the institute's most recent graduates at the time, Joanna Mansfield Sullivan. Sullivan had graduated head of her class, was an experienced teacher and was partially visually impaired. 

On March 3, 1887, Sullivan arrived at Helen's home in Alabama and began teaching with love and patience. She spelled the world "Doll" in Helen's hand in attempts to associate it with the doll she had brought the child as a present.

Initially, Helen was curious but soon became defiant and uncooperative. Sullivan noticed Helen failed to associate the objects with the letters spelled in her hand. Despite this, Sullivan persisted, and continued to guide Helen.

As Helen's frustration escalated and her tantrums became more frequent, Sullivan insisted that she and Helen be separated from the family for a period to ensure that Helen could focus solely on her teachings. Consequently, they relocated to a cottage on the plantation.

Sullivan introduced the word "water" to Helen by guiding her to a water pump and placing her hand under the spout. As Sullivan pumped the cool water over Helen's hand, she spelled out the letters w-a-t-e-r on Helen's other hand. This helped Helen make the connection between the object and the word. Helen grasped the concept and mirrored the word in Sullivan's hand. By the end of the day, she had mastered 30 words.

With Sullivan's extraordinary teachings Helen's mood improved and she learned to understand and communicate with the world around her. Helen learned to read and write in Braille and to use the hand signals, which she could understand only by touch. She also learned to use a typewriter.

Helen learned to speak with the help of Sarah Fuller using her fingers to feel Sarah's lips and throat when she spoke. Helen dedicated a significant portion of her life to delivering speeches and lectures about her experiences.

Helen studied at schools for the deaf in Boston and New York City with Sullivan repeating the lectures into her hand. At twelve she published an autobiographical sketch in the Youth’s Companion.

As Helen's story gained public attention, she started meeting notable and influential figures. Among them was the writer Mark Twain, who found her remarkable and befriended her. Twain then introduced her to his acquaintance, Henry H. Rogers, an executive at Standard Oil. Struck by Helen's abilities, ambition, and resolve, Rogers decided to finance her education at Radcliffe College which she was accepted to at just 16. 

During her junior year at Radcliffe, Helen authored her first book, "The Story of My Life," which remains available in over fifty languages. Persevering in her academic endeavors, she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in 1904 at the age of 24, becoming the first individual with deaf blindness to attain such a degree.

Shortly after her college graduation, Helen joined the Socialist Party and spoke out for women's suffrage and demanded better access to birth control. She also penned numerous articles on socialism and endorsed Eugene Debs, the Socialist Party's candidate for president. Helen emerged as a powerful advocate for the rights of individuals with disabilities and for women's rights. This also resulted in her being monitored by the FBI.

It was during this period that Helen first encountered public bias regarding her disabilities. Throughout most of her life, she had received overwhelming support from the press but once she revealed her socialist beliefs, some began to criticize her by highlighting her disabilities. The Brooklyn Eagle newspaper commented that her ""mistakes sprung out of the manifest limitations of her development."

Following her college education, she embarked on a journey to expand her understanding of the world and to explore ways she could contribute to enhancing the lives of others. Helen conveyed her experiences to various audiences and provided testimony before Congress, fervently championing the betterment of the blind community's welfare.

In 1905 Sullivan married Harvard instructor and social critic John Macy and Keller lived with them in Forest Hills, Queens.

Just before World War I, Helen Keller discovered that she could experience music through the vibrations by placing her fingertips on a resonant surface, with the help of the Zoellner Quartet.

In 1914 a young woman named Polly Thomson began working as a secretary for Helen and Sullivan.

In 1915, Helen co-founded Helen Keller International, an organization dedicated to fighting the causes and consequences of blindness and malnutrition.

In 1916 Sullivan became ill and Boston reporter Peter Fagan served as a replacement secretary. He and Hellen fell in love and wished to marry. However, it was the interference from Hellen's family, who believed that the deafblind Helen could fulfill the roles of a wife and mother, that ultimately ended the relationship.

In 1918, Helen made a silent movie in Hollywood, Deliverance, to dramatize the plight of the blind. For two year she also performed on the vaudeville stage much to Sullivan's dismay.

Helen helped found the American Civil Liberties Union in 1920.

In 1924 Helen became a member of the American Federation for the Blind and participated in many campaigns to raise awareness, money and support. She garnered significant donations from Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, and key figures in the motion picture industry. When a branch for the overseas blind, it was named Helen Keller International.

Helen also became involved with other organizations committed to aiding the underprivileged, such as the Permanent Blind War Relief Fund.

Sullivan experienced health problems and in 1932 lost her eyesight completely. In 1936 she fell into a coma as a result of coronary thrombosis and passed away with Hellen holding her hand. This is when Polly Thomson, became Helen's constant companion. Helen and Thomson moved to Connecticut. They traveled worldwide and raised funds for the blind.

Also, in 1936 Helen received the Theodore Roosevelt Distinguished Service Medal.

Helen offered her support to soldiers blinded during World War II.

In 1946, Helen Keller was appointed as a counselor for international relations by the American Foundation for the Overseas Blind, and she visited 35 countries across five continents.

In 1953, Helen received a nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1955, Helen, at the age of 75, undertook a challenging journey. She covered 40,000 miles in five months, traversing Asia. Her numerous speeches and appearances provided inspiration and encouragement to millions.

In 1957, Thomson suffered a stroke from which she never fully recovered, passing away in 1960. Winnie Corbally, a nurse who was initially employed to look after Thomson, continued to stay on after her death and became Helen's companion for the remainder of her life.

Also in 1957 Helen's autobiography, "The Story of My Life," served as the inspiration for the television drama "The Miracle Worker." Later, in 1959, it was adapted into a Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play with the same name, featuring Patty Duke as Helen Keller and Anne Bancroft as her teacher, Anne Sullivan. Duke and Bancroft reprised their roles in the critically acclaimed 1962 film adaptation of the play.

In 1964 Helen received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and in 1965 was elected to the Women's Hall of Fame.

Helen was also awarded honorary doctoral degrees from Temple University, Harvard University, and the universities of Glasgow in Scotland, Berlin in Germany, Delhi in India, and Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Additionally, she received the title of Honorary Fellow from the Educational Institute of Scotland.

In 1961 Helen suffered a series of strokes and spent the remaining years of her life at her home in Connecticut.

On June 1st, 1968, just a few weeks before her 88th birthday Helen died in her sleep. Her ashes are interred at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC.

The Haunting of Cedarhurst Mansion.

Stephen Ewing built Cedarhurst Mansion in 1823 in Huntsville, Alabama. Tragically, on November 28th, 1837, Sally Carter, a relative of the Ewings, died of illness at the age of 15 while visiting her sister at the mansion. It was just three weeks shy of her birthday when she was buried on the property. It was said that her ghost has continued to linger, and over the years, people have reported strange occurrences related to her.

The most famous report of Sally’s ghost occurred in 1919, when a 17-year-old boy from Dothan was staying in her former bedroom. He claimed to have been visited by her during a stormy night. Sally asked him to fix her tombstone, which had been knocked over in the storm. When the boy’s family checked, they found the tombstone indeed fallen.

Other people that have stayed in Sally's room have reported doors opening and closing by themselves, covers getting snatched off the bed and light switches flipping on their own.

There also have been reports of Sally's apparition roaming the estate she adored. A former guard at Cedarhurst reported hearing Sally's footsteps upstairs during a night shift. Once her shift concluded, she discovered that she had misplaced some money while making her rounds.

Despite searching the property, experiencing the eerie sensation of footsteps trailing her, and enduring the unsettling flicker of her flashlight as though its batteries were about to expire, the guard eventually resigned herself to the loss of the money.

Upon her return to the guard shack, her flashlight suddenly flickered to life, illuminating the cash she had written off as lost. It was at that moment she decided to express her gratitude to Sally, and she claims that in response, she heard the laughter of a young woman.

There have been numerous reports of Sally’s ghost watching over children as they slept and moving furniture on its own. Sally's spirit is said to haunt the estate to this day.

Constant visits to her grave caused problems for her family. In 1982, when a new neighborhood was being developed, Sally’s family moved her casket along with others in the family plot and reburied her in Maple Hill Cemetery. Some claim that when her grave was excavated, Sally's casket was empty.

If you’re ever in Huntsville, you might want to explore the eerie history of Sally Carter’s grave!

THE HAUNTING Of Cedarhurst Mansion - YouTube

Is Hell's Gate Bridge in Alabama a Passageway to The Fiery Depths of Hell?

 

Built in the 1930's, Hell’s Gate Bridge is hidden within the woods in Oxford, Alabama. Legend has it that this small broken-down bridge, that creeks underfoot, is haunted by the spirits of those who met tragic ends there. This bridge has earned its name from when in the 1950s, a young couple tragically drove off the bridge and plunged into the water below. This event left an indelible mark on the bridge’s history. Some say that if you stop your car on Hell’s Gate Bridge, turn off your lights, and glance over your shoulder, the road behind you resembles the fiery gates of Hell. Others say that if you leave your car and come back, you may find the seat wet from a ghost that emerged from the creek. Locals have reported various spine-chilling phenomenon over the years. 

Due to safety reasons, local officials have blocked off vehicle access to the bridge using cement blocks. However, visitors can still explore it on foot, although walking across the aging structure isn’t recommended.

Hell's Gate Bridge

"Little Farmer" Sherry Lynn Marler Is Still Missing.

"Sherry was always a happy little girl and that’s what I remember the most, even in my dreams." -Betty Stringfellow

Sherry Lynn Marler seemed always to be cheerful and was described as strong and outdoorsy. Her nickname was "Little Farmer because she had a passion for farming. One of her proudest achievements was that she could operate a plow.

She was a tomboy who loved Kenny Rogers’ songs. Her mother had bought her a small record player and some of his albums. Sherry loved listening to him sing. She also couldn’t wait for school to end so she could hop onto her moped to go for a ride.

Sherry was born on August 18th, 1971, to Betty and Ralph. Her parents split up when she was young, and Betty went on to marry a retired army sergeant named Ray Stringfellow. Ray became a farmer in 1979 and had a 400-acre farm where he grew crops. Sherry loved to stay out there on the farm with her stepdaddy and he would take her with him to the tractor shop and the feed store. By all accounts it seemed like Sherry had a good relationship with her family.

It was Wednesday, June 6th, 1984, before 7am when Betty headed off to work as a waitress at the Waffle House in Greenville, Alabama. One of Ray's aunts was spending the week with them, so Sherry was sleeping on the sofa in the living room that morning. As Betty opened the door to go to work, Sherry turned over. Betty thought that she had awakened her, but Sherry settled back down, and Betty went on to work. Betty said that was the last time she saw or heard from her daughter.

Not too long after Betty left, Sherry woke up as Ray headed to the kitchen to brew some coffee. It was only two months before Sherry's 13th birthday, which she anxiously awaited so that she could get a three-wheeler to replace her motorized scooter. She was also looking forward to seeing her grandmother that day as well as watching her favorite soap opera. 

Sherry was 5feet 4inches tall had brown eyes and long brown hair. She was wearing a red long-sleeved plaid flannel work shirt, faded jeans, new gray sneakers with Velcro fastenings, and a watch with a black band. It was 9:30 am and as she rode with Ray into town in his red pickup truck. Sherry followed Ray everywhere he'd go.

Ray had parked behind a furniture store in downtown Greenville. He was going to walk over to the First National Bank to discuss a farm loan. 

Sherry said she was thirsty and wanted to walk across the street to the Chevron station to get a drink out of the vending machine, so Ray pulled a dollar out of his wallet and told her to meet him back at the pickup truck. 

15 minutes later Ray had made it back to the truck, but Sherry wasn't there. He waited another 10 minutes and then started to get worried. Ray then called Betty and asked if she’d seen Sherry, thinking that maybe she had stopped by the Waffle House, but she hadn’t. Ray went searching for Sherry, but when turned fruitless, he contacted police at 11:46am and reported Sherry as missing. 

There were searches by air and on land by law enforcement and volunteers. Hundreds of acres were searched and so was an abandoned well nearby. The local police spent hundreds of man-hours combing over the fields and wooded areas of Greenville, but Sherry was nowhere to be found. There were no sightings of Sherry anywhere in town that day as well as no sightings of strangers. The investigators began to focus on the family. In any investigation authorities start out with those closest to the victim and work their way out.

Ray was the first to be questioned. He adamantly denied that he had involvement in Sherry's disappearance but agreed that it would have been difficult for a stranger to have attempted to abduct her by force and not be spotted because Sherry would have put up a fight.

Betty was questioned by police too. She had pointed to the fact that soda machines at the time did not offer change so Sherry would have had to ask someone for change for her dollar so she could get a soda out of the machine.

Ray and Betty were asked to take polygraphs which they both turned down. They thought that the police were biased against them and were angry and worried that the police weren't following other paths like they should.

Within days of Sherry vanishing, unconfirmed sightings began surfacing. One report was of a girl matching Sherry's description looking visibly distressed, as well as disheveled and "dazed" in Conely, Georgia at a truck stop with a 50-year-old man who had a husky build and a weathered complexion and crow's feet around the eyes.  It was alleged that the girl referred to him as "BJ". Allegedly they travel through Mississippi and Florida too.

Another alleged unconfirmed sighting was later that year at a mall in New Orleans.

There was also a call in 1986 allegedly from Arizona, but they hung up before the family could get any information.

Betty has said that she believes that Ray never had anything to do with Sherry's disappearance. She said that he always blamed himself. She said that on his death bed in 2003, Ray told her "Betty, I wish I could go get Sherry and bring her home to you, but I can't, because I don't know where she is"

In 2010, Betty and her family opened a restaurant called Carlisle's on Main. It was in the old Carlisle house, and they had put a sign out front that noted that it was opened in honor and memory of Sherry Lynn Marler. Betty said that they wanted to honor Sherry's memory and also to heighten people’s awareness of the reality of children missing every day in this country.

In 2013, cancer claimed the lives of Betty's brother, her sister and Ralph within three months. Betty and Ralph were engaged at the time of his death. There was also a land dispute that Betty claimed that could end up making her homeless. I don't know what the outcome of that was. She was also recovering from open heart surgery as well as had joined Team HOPE, a volunteer group that’s part of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Sherry's brother Larry spent most of his years searching for her until he passed away in 2016 age the age of 48.

To this day Sherry's whereabout remain unsolved.

If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:

The Greenville Police Department at 1-334-382-7461 or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678.