Deaf, mute, blind woman votes for first time at 90

From: Hampton Roads Daily Press, VA - Nov 3, 2004

After all these years, Helen Foy finally had her political say.

The 90-year-old Hampton woman was among the throng of new voters who helped sway the election Tuesday.

Being a first-time voter at her age is story enough, but there's more: Foy is blind, deaf and mute.

"You've heard of Helen Keller?" said Henry Thomas Smith, Foy's son. "Well, this is Helen Foy."

I met Foy and her son Monday at her apartment, which she's had for 15 years. Smith said Foy still got around well and remained self-sufficient. She's never worked but can cook, clean and bathe - skills she picked up from family members.

Smith, divorced with no children, lives with Foy because she's up in age, he said. He makes sure she eats before he starts his afternoon shift at the Newport News shipyard.

I was a little skeptical at first. I wondered how Foy would communicate directly with me, let alone cast informed votes in one of the most hotly contested elections. She sat on her couch and appeared asleep. Actually, she was.

"She says she dreams about seeing her family," Smith said.

As I greeted her, the petite silver-haired woman clutched my hand like a loving grandmother, turned toward me and smiled broadly behind her shaded glasses.

Smith grabbed a newspaper, put her hand on it and then made hand signs in her palm, while saying aloud that I wanted to ask her some questions. She nodded.

"She said she just wanted to vote because maybe she can make a difference," Smith interpreted.

Later, she would blow me a goodbye kiss.

Foy is from Jacksonville, N.C. One of seven children, she was born deaf and mute. Cataracts took her sight later, at 16. Her youngest sister was also deaf. Foy stopped attending school in fifth grade, when her parents died. She developed a personal sign language, which she would later teach her son.

Foy came to Newport News in 1949 with her family. She gave birth to Smith and a daughter but never married their father, who was also deaf and blind.

Smith said life was rough and lonely for his mother. The family was ashamed of her because of the disability. It cast her aside, he said. This contributed to why she never voted, even after passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. She was embarrassed to be out in public, Smith said.

"In her life," he said, "all she has wanted is peace."

Smith, who first voted in the 1992 presidential election, said he asked Foy to vote then. He pressed the issue this year because of the magnitude of the presidential election. He gave her his spin on the candidates - Republican President Bush put the troops in Iraq; Democratic Sen. John Kerry would get them out.

The National Organization on Disability estimates 40 million disabled people are of voting age. In 2000, about 41 percent of disabled voters went to the polls. The number was expected to spike because of the intense interest in this presidential election and the 2002 passage of the Help America Vote Act.

The act aims to increase access to polling places and also improve voter technology for the disabled.

Hampton uses optical-scan ballots, which require a voter to have sight.

Machines for the disabled are expected next year, said Theresa R. Kyle, Hampton's voting registrar.

Virginia allows a disabled voter to receive help at the polls. The ballot could be brought to the voter's vehicle, or someone can assist them in the booth, which is what Smith did.

Foy used sign language to tell Smith her choice, and he was to record the vote exactly that way. "Basically, it's the honor system," Kyle said.

It's also illegal for Smith to divulge Foy's vote, Kyle said. So unless you can communicate directly with Foy, you'll never know. Foy likely voted for Kerry for president, though. Smith told me that he was backing Kerry, too.

"After we were done, she just clapped her hands together and smiled," Smith said.

Wil LaVeist can be reached at 247-7840 or by e-mail at wlaveist@dailypress.com

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