W.C. Handy Home
photo by Florence-Lauderdale Tourism
In addition to the famous Muscle Shoals Sound, the Florence-Lauderdale area of Alabama, centrally located in the north part of the state, is the birthplace of W.C. Handy ("Father of the Blues") and Helen Keller ("The First Lady of Courage").
Mr. Handy, born in 1873, is considered one of America's most influential songwriters, even today. Although he was one of many musicians playing the blues in the early
1900s, he is credited with shaping its contemporary sound. His first popular success was the tune "Memphis Blues," published in 1912, introduced his trademark style into the mainstream. The song is also credited as the inspiration for the foxtrot dance step. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, the author references Mr. Handy's song "Beale Street Blues" in a series of lines describing the feverish gaiety of Gatsby's parties and of the Jazz Age itself: "All night the saxophones wailed the hopeless comment of "Beale Street Blues" while a hundred pairs of golden and silver slippers shuffled the shining dust. At the grey tea hour there were always rooms that throbbed incessantly with this low, sweet fever, while fresh faces drifted here and there like rose petals blown by the sad horns around the floor."
Helen Keller was born only a few years after Mr. Handy, in 1880, on her family's farm in Tuscumbia, Alabama. She is most famous for being the first deaf/blind person to earn a bachelor of arts degree. Although born with the ability to see and hear, she contracted a fever at about a year-and-a-half-old, which left her both deaf and blind. As a young child, she was able to communicate with the daughter of the family's cook with a rudimentary system of signs, but was essentially mute. When tutor Anne Sullivan came to the family farm in 1887, she began working to teach Ms. Keller to communicate by spelling letters into her hand. The following year, she accompanied Ms. Keller to several prestigious schools for the deaf, and eventually to Radcliffe College in 1900, where Ms. Keller obtained a bachelor's degree. She eventually learned to speak, and could read sign language with her hands, as well as read the lips of people speaking out loud, and read and write in braille. She went on to become a world-famous advocate for persons with disabilities, as well as a supporter of women's suffrage and labor rights. She published 12 books and numerous articles. She passed away in 1968, at her home in Connecticut.
The birthplaces of both of these notables are open to the public, and their achievements are celebrated annually. Mr. Handy was born in a humble two-room cabin in Florence, which is available for visitation from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m., Tuesday throughSaturday. And, mark your calendar to tap your toes at the W.C. Handy Music Festival, July 17-26. Since 1982, the Music Preservation Society, Inc. has been honoring and celebrating the "Father of the Blues" with an annual ten-day series of events held in the northwestern part of Alabama, often referred to as "The Shoals." The W.C. Handy Music Festival has been recognized as a Top 10 Event by the Alabama Department of Tourism; a Southeast Tourism Society Top 20 Event for July, August, September; a Featured Site on the Geo-tourism Map Guide to Appalachia, and a Top 100 American Bus Association Event in North America. Like the event on Facebook to stay up to date regarding upcoming plans.
The water pump where Helen Keller said her first words still stands at her home, where "The Miracle Worker" play about Anne Sullivan's tutelage is performed on the grounds each summer. Ms. Keller's birthplace is open from 8:30 a.m. - 4 p.m., Mondaythrough Saturday.
Make plans to attend the June 25-28 Helen Keller Festival at Spring Park in Tuscumbia, where fun, creative, hands-on activities will keep any child busy at Imagination Station. Children will participate in building activities, making one-of-a-kind take home crafts and works of art. Educational activities are also included that teach children how people with hearing and vision disabilities learn to read and communicate, and how this affects their every day activities. Imagination Station is located on the "north bank" near the main entrance to the park in Spring Park. All activities are free to children. Follow the event on social media to stay in the know.
Florence/Lauderdale Tourism, www.VisitFlorencAL.com, 256-740-4141