MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A new documentary will examine the life of one of the most famous Alabamians of all time, author and social advocate Helen Keller.

Alabama Public Television says “American Masters: Becoming Helen Keller” will premiere nationwide Tuesday. The show uses photos, film clips, readings of Keller’s works and interviews to tell her story.

Born near Tuscumbia in northwest Alabama in 1880, Keller became deaf and blind because of an unknown illness when she was 19 months old. She went on to become a world-famous writer and lecturer who advocated for workers, poor people, women and people with disabilities.

Keller’s birthplace home, Ivy Green, is a tourist stop in Tuscumbia. Visitors can still see the water pump where teacher Annie Sullivan helped Keller learn to communicate as a girl, and the state donated a statue of Keller at the well for display at the U.S. Capitol in 2009.