Geraldine Jerrie Lawhorn (December 31, 1916 – July 3, 2016) was a figure of the American deafblind community, a performer, actress, pianist, then instructor at the Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

At 67 years old, she became the first deafblind African American to earn a college degree in the United States of America.

Pearl Walker opened a beauty shop in their apartment to earn some money and have time to take care of her children.

As a result, she attended the Sight-Saving Room of the Sherwood Grammar School which provided some accommodations for the visually impaired pupils.

Therefore, she had to learn a new mode of communication: the One-Hand Alphabet, and joined a special academic program in the Braille Room.

At the time, the Catholic Youth Organization conducted an experiment to see if dogs were able to lead blind people.

Bessie Henderson, the head of the Drama Division of the school and an alumna from Northwestern University, taught her creative writing, diction, public speaking, and acting.

The Blind Service Association selected Jerrie to audition for Reuben's Amateur Hour on one of the Chicago's leading stations.

They settled in Queens, to Frank Wilson's house, a Broadway actor playing in Watch on the Rhine and known to help young talents find success.

She also met backstage the actors Ezio Pinza, Mary Martin and Juanita Hall after attending performance of South Pacific.

Pearl Walker and Frank Wilson collected the audience's comments backstage to help Geraldine improve herself.

Jerrie rented evenings at Carnegie Recital Hall and dedicated her shows to Frank Wilson, after he died.

She was part of the Celestial Choral Ensemble of the Blind, which presented two concerts at the New York World's Fair in 1964.

At Christmas time, both women used to visit the Rockefeller Center and the Radio City Music Hall.

She joined a program for disabled adults, in which she learned swimming, bowling, ceramics, aerobics, and social dancing – like rumba, mambo, tango, and paso doble.

[2] By this time, only three deafblind people had received a college degree: Helen Keller, Robert Smithdas, and Richard Kinney, president of the International Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

This night, eight deafblind adults, including Geraldine Lawhorn and Richard Kinney, received the Anne Sullivan Gold Medal.

[2] In 1967, Pearl Walker and her daughter went back to Chicago, as the Hadley School confirmed Geraldine's employment.

[6] Afterwards, she started teaching two correspondence courses: "Independent Living for Those Without Sight or Hearing" and "Verse Writing and Poetry".

She was the keynote speaker at the Second International Conference of the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired at Chicago's McCormick Center Hotel.

She had to undergo months of rehabilitation, which consisted of therapeutic exercises with a nurse's aid five times a week.

After the death of her mother, Geraldine started using new equipment to be more independent: the Code-Com telephone attachment for the deafblind, a Signal Master that activated electric appliances when the telephone rang, and an Optacon given by the Hadley School to read inkprint material.

She was present at the 80th birthday ceremony of Helen Keller organized by the Industrial Home for the Blind in Brooklyn.

[8] Three days after, the new graduate flew with a friend to New York City, where David Hartman interviewed her on the nationwide television show Good Morning America.

[2] After that, Zig Ziglar quoted Geraldine as a model of perseverance in his book Steps to the Top, published in 1985.

She lived alone in her South Side apartment and daily used a lot of equipment like the Braille cooking utensils.

[11] Sanjay Leela Bhansali cited Geraldine's autobiography One Different Roads as one source of inspiration for his film Black, released in 2005.

[1] In 2011, Jerrie Lawhorn retired from the Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired after 40 years of teaching.

For instance, she was introduced into the Disabled Persons Hall of Fame in Chicago and received the Hadley School's Challenge of Living Award.

[3] Geraldine Lawhorn died on July 3, 2016, at Weiss Memorial Hospital on the North Side of Chicago.