Early Life
Sullivan was born on April 14, 1866 in Feeding Hills, Massachusetts. According to her baptismal certificate, her full name at birth was Johanna Mansfield Sullivan; however, she was called Anne from the time she was born. Her parents' names were Thomas Sullivan and Alice Cloesy Sullivan and they were Irish immigrants who couldn't read and had virtually no money. In 1874 her mother, Alice, died, probably of tuberculosis; after which Anne and her younger brother, Jimmie were sent to an almshouse in Tewksbury, Massachusetts (today part of Tewksbury Hospital). She was at Tewksbury for four years. In 1880, Anne, who was blind from untreated trachoma and had untreated intestinal worms, was sent to the Perkins School for the Blind. Anne had a brother, Jimmie (James), born in 1869, a sister Ellen born in 1867 and a sister, Mary.
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