Oct 27, 2009 5:30 pm US/Central
Someone You Should Know: Geraldine Lawhorn
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Geraldine Lawhorn, 92, is a musician, author and teacher, despite the fact that she is both deaf and blind.
CBS
In the mid 1930s, Geraldine Lawhorn was a student at Marshall High School in Chicago. Her vision of the world became no vision at all when she lost her sight and her hearing. But in her long life, she has shown the world that you can have vision, even if you don't have sight. And that silence can speak volumes. CBS 2's Harry Porterfield reports that Geraldine Lawhorn is someone you should know.
The last time Geraldine Lawhorn heard a musical instrument was in 1936.
"After I lost my hearing, I stopped playing the piano until one of my drama teachers wanted to experiment to see if I remembered how to play, and then I began to take music lessons," Lawhorn said.
Those music lessons were in Braille. Lawhorn became so accomplished she began to perform in concerts.
"I did not hear the Beethoven, so it was finger work and mathematics," Lawhorn said. "It's all in the mind and in the feeling, and in memory."
She also took to the stage with dramatic monologues she wrote herself. With success came world travel and an autobiography: "On Different Roads."
"Well, everyone kept asking me questions, so I wrote the book in the attempt to answer their questions," Lawhorn said. "But after I wrote the book, they asked even more questions."
Lawhorn is very much in touch with the world through interpreter Diane O'Neill.
"When I think of getting older, she's my role model," O'Neill said. "She lives by herself. She teaches. She's on advocacy boards. She doesn't let anything stop her. She doesn't let anything define her."
For the past 42 years, Lawhorn has been on the staff at The Hadley School For The Blind in Winnetka. She teaches poetry through computer correspondence.
"When I push too hard, they think of me as a pain in the neck. But most of my students cooperate when they finally understand that prose states the facts; poetry makes the facts beautiful," Lawhorn said.
Lawhorn turns 93 in December. She says she never could have done it all alone.
"I don't give myself much credit because I realize how much assistance I had," Lawhorn said. "But I am grateful to the many people who help, and grateful to the opportunities I have had."
Geraldine Lawhorn: deaf, blind, musician, author, teacher, and someone you should know.
In 1983, Lawhorn earned a Bachelor's degree from Northeastern Illinois University in the Rehabilitation of Deaf-Blind Adults.
She's often compared to another blind and deaf woman who graduated college. That would be her inspiration: Helen Keller.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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