[3] She was the eldest child of Thomas and Alice (Cloesy) Sullivan, who had emigrated from Ireland to the United States during the Great Famine.

[4] When she was five years old, Sullivan contracted the bacterial eye disease trachoma, which caused many painful infections and over time made her nearly blind.

[citation needed] In 1875, as a result of reports of cruelty to inmates at Tewksbury, including sexually perverted practices and cannibalism, the Massachusetts Board of State Charities launched an investigation into the institution.

[5] The investigation was led by Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, then chairman of the board, and Samuel Gridley Howe, founder of the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston.

[citation needed] In February 1877, Sullivan was sent to the Soeurs de la Charité hospital in Lowell, Massachusetts, where she had another unsuccessful operation.

[5] Instead of returning to the facility for predominantly ill and insane patients, she was housed with single mothers and unmarried pregnant women.

[citation needed] In 1880, during a subsequent inspection of Tewksbury by Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, now State Inspector of Charities, Sullivan implored of him to allow her to be admitted to the Perkins School for the Blind, in Watertown, Massachusetts.

[6] In June 1886, graduating at age 20 as the valedictorian of her class, Sullivan stated: Fellow-graduates: Duty bids us go forth into active life.

When we have found it, willingly and faithfully perform it; for every obstacle we overcome, every success we achieve tends to bring man closer to God and make life more as He would have it.

[8] Sullivan's curriculum involved a strict schedule, with constant introduction of new vocabulary; however, she quickly changed her teaching method after seeing it did not suit Keller.

[2] Sullivan remained a close companion to Keller and continued to assist in her education, which ultimately included a degree from Radcliffe College (now part of Harvard University).

[11] On May 3, 1905, Sullivan married Harvard University instructor and literary critic John Albert Macy (1877–1932), who had helped Keller with her publications.

On October 15, 1936, she had a coronary thrombosis, fell into a coma, and died five days later[17] at the age of 70 in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Queens, New York, with Keller holding her hand.

Sullivan is the main character in The Miracle Worker by William Gibson, originally produced for television in 1957, in which she was portrayed by Teresa Wright.