Helen May Martin

Martin began giving concerts for the public in 1922, in Olathe.^[7][8] She toured and performed in cities across the United States, for over twenty years, often sponsored by the Lions Club service organization.^[5] She was often presented as a "girl", though her concert career began when she was nearly thirty years old.^[7][9][10]

Martin collected sheet music in braille and other raised print systems, and memorized hundreds of compositions. She also played the harp, and used a typewriter. She listened to live and broadcast music while holding an empty metal can in her hands, to capture the vibrations.^[1]

Martin met Helen Keller in Lincoln.^[10] Keller scolded a reporter for calling Martin "a second Helen Keller," saying "She is not a 'second' to me, for she has done what I could never do; she has made of herself an accomplished pianist and musician.... She is the most accomplished deaf and blind person in the world."^[1]

Martin lived in Merriam, Kansas with her mother and her sister Gertrude.^[10] Gertrude died in 1939. Helen May Martin died in Merriam in 1947, aged 53 years.^[2]