Susann Hamlin, president and CEO of Colbert County, Alabama's tourism office, told Fox News Digital what visitors to Helen Keller's birthplace can expect during stops at Ivy Green in Tuscumbia, Alabama. Rock 'n' roll lovers on a musical mecca throughout the South are likely, during their travels , to make a stop at the famed recording studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. But just a few miles away in the nearby city of Tuscumbia lies another legendary locale — attracting its own enthusiastic visitors.
(See the video at the top of this piece, plus another video within this article.) Not far from the Tennessee River sits Ivy Green, the birthplace of Helen Keller. The American woman overcame her inability to see or hear at an early age and emerged an acclaimed author and advocate for disability rights.
MIGHTY MUSCLE SHOALS, ALABAMA FLEXES ITS LEGACY AS BIRTHPLACE OF GLOBAL MUSIC AND MIRACLES It's also the setting of William Gibson's "The Miracle Worker" stage play, based on Keller's 1903 autobiography "The Story of My Life." Not only is Ivy Green the central location for Gibson's Tony Award-winning play, but each summer the grounds become the centerpiece of the tale of Keller's early home struggles. Teacher Annie Sullivan, as Keller once wrote of their relationship, "gave me love and opened my mind and helped me acquire knowledge and greatness of life.
" Helen Keller, left, in 1893 at age 13, is pictured with Annie Sullivan, who traveled from Boston to teach the young student. (Be.
