Historical Name: Helen Keller
Common Name: Water Oak
Latin Name: Quercus nigra
Helen Keller studied nature by climbing trees in the yard of her Tuscumbia, Alabama home. The towering Helen Keller Water Oak may have been one of those trees. She wrote of her tree climbing in a memoir titled, “The Story of My Life.” Her life was one of tragedy and triumph. She was born in 1880 and lost her sight and hearing at the age of 19 months. She became an unruly, nearly savage child. Doctors told her parents she would be unable to function in the world. But when Helen Keller was 7 years old, her life was transformed. Anne Sullivan, a 20-year-old graduate of The Perkins School for the Blind, began the extraordinary task of teaching Helen Keller to communicate and to study the world around her. This tree grew from a seed taken from the Helen Keller Water Oak, and was planted into UCNJ’s Historic Tree Grove in 1997.
(text adapted from American Forests)