Annie Keeler

Biography Keeler was born on November 6, 1855, in Brooklyn, New York. Her parents were Halcyon Gilbert Bailey and Emily Keeler Bailey. Her parents moved to Ridgebury, Connecticut in 1862, when she was about 7. Her 5-year-old brother Clayton died shortly after, in 1863. Her parents divorced in 1872 and Keeler remained with her mother and her mother's family.

Education Keeler went to college at the Connecticut State Normal School (now Central Connecticut State University). She graduated from the Normal School as part of the class of 1876 and taught in Ridgebury for a few years. In 1885 at age 30, Annie Keeler graduated from the Woman's Medical College of the New York Infirmary. She taught at the Danbury Hospital Training School for Nurses for 11 years and, in 1892, was instrumental in the formation of the Danbury Graduate Nurses' association. Meetings were held in her home for years, until regular meeting rooms were obtained.

Name change In 1908, after both her parents had died, Keeler petitioned the Superior Court for a name change. At the time, she was known as "Annie Keeler Bailey" and she wished to drop her father's name to (as the newspapers put it) "free the honor of her mother's family from the taint arising from the name of her father". She said "Father was a man addicted to excessive dissipation, shocking immorality, and profanity. He was a disgrace to the family." Her petition was granted.

Death

In 1927, Keeler was struck by a vehicle while crossing the street at a crosswalk, a block from her home. She died of her injuries shortly afterward.