Her life defies simple explanation. As the first deaf-blind individual in the United States to graduate from college, Helen Keller also helped found the American Civil Liberties Union in 1920. Across more than eight decades, she maintained a remarkable presence, meeting every U.S. president from the age of seven until her passing.

Among the many leaders she encountered were Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson. In a striking parallel to Queen Elizabeth II, Keller met the same number of presidents as the monarch did chiefs of state, with a notable exception in Johnson’s tenure.

Presidential honor followed her into 1964, when Lyndon B. Johnson awarded Keller the Presidential Medal of Freedom, praising her as “an example of courage to all mankind” and noting that she had dedicated her life to shedding light on the challenges faced by the blind and disabled.

Her calls to action extended to the highest offices: in 1947, she wrote to Truman asking for a message of goodwill to the blind of Japan, hoping from the heart of America that the nation would step forward in support of those who faced visual and sensory barriers.