# Ann Adams

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{{Short description|American artist}}
{{for|the British swimmer|Anne Adams}}
thumb|right|Ann Adams drawing a picture, 1972

'''Ann Adams''' (1926-1992) was an American artist who, after becoming almost fully paralyzed due to [poliomyelitis](/source/poliomyelitis), re-learned to draw by using a pencil held in her mouth.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0gMU73cjH9EC&pg=PA64|title=Polio|last=Hecht|first=Alan|date=March 22, 2017|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=9781604132380|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=New York Media, LLC|title=New York Magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g-kCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA60|date=June 9, 1975|publisher=New York Media, LLC|page=60|issn=0028-7369}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=R. C. Bradley|title=Jesus, the Greatest Master Teacher of Us All|year=1975|publisher=University Press|isbn=978-0-8418-4480-3|page=67}}</ref>

== Early life ==
Adams was born in [Jacksonville, Florida](/source/Jacksonville%2C_Florida), and had a sister, Margaret.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|last1=Paulos |first1=Dan |title=Lift Up Your Heart: Ann Adams and the Art of Living |url=http://www.nmia.com/~paulos/annadams.html |publisher=Catholic Digest |access-date=March 21, 2017 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120206145038/http://www.nmia.com/~paulos/annadams.html |archive-date=February 6, 2012 }}</ref> At age 19, Adams married a [Navy](/source/United_States_Navy) officer.<ref name=":0" /> Their only child, a son named Kenneth, was born two years later.<ref name=":0" />

== Illness ==
At age 24, in 1950, Adams contracted polio after the Georgia/Florida game where she caught a chill after crossing the river in a boat that night. The last time her sister saw her move was that night as she danced with her brother-in-law to Glenn Miller.  She was an art major before getting married at [Florida State University](/source/Florida_State_University)<ref name="FT" /> and had started art school in Jacksonville in 1950. She was working at the shipyard in Jacksonville at the time when she became ill.  The disease totally destroyed and paralyzed all but a few facial and neck muscles.<ref name=":0" /> She spent a year and a half in a hospital in Jacksonville and another year and a half in a rehabilitation center in North Carolina. After this, Adams spent five years, spending up to 24 hours a day, inside an [iron lung](/source/iron_lung) due to her inability to breathe on her own.<ref name=":0" />  Polio does not destroy the nerves so she still had [feeling through](/source/Feeling_Through) her body.

Her husband was unable to cope with Adams' disability, divorcing her three years after contracting the illness and he received primary custody of their son due to her hospitalization. Her parents cared for her during this time, and the [March of Dimes](/source/March_of_Dimes) (then the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis) provided financial and medical assistance.<ref name=":0" /> Under the care of the Central Carolina Convalescent Hospital, she lay in a rocking bed which helped her body, paralyzed from the neck down, breathe. Her mind was alert and she was given an adaptive device<ref name="Robesonian" /> invented by Frank Reck<ref name="News-Press" /> and made by a dentist, Dr. Coble, that allowed her to type letters using her mouth. She was also fitted with an electric typewriter and given a page turner, made by Harry Doll of [Western Electric Company](/source/Western_Electric), so that she could read a book by herself.<ref name="Robesonian">{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/42033677/ |title=Polio Patient Types with Mouth |date=July 17, 1953 |newspaper=The Robesonian|location=Lumberton, North Carolina |access-date=March 25, 2017|page=2 |via=newspapers.com}}</ref><ref name="News-Press" />

The Southeastern Respiration and Rehabilitation Center in [Augusta, Georgia](/source/Augusta%2C_Georgia), provided Adams with a corset breathing device, where a rubber bag mimicked the negative pressure needed to breathe so that she could spend four hours a day where she was free of the iron lung; additionally, the center had a unique rocking bed and mouth hose device that allowed her to sleep normally, which meant that she could spend twelve hours a day outside the iron lung.<ref name=":0" /> Despite this freedom, it was eight years before she was able to return to artistic pursuits. She told her sister Margaret that the "positive Pressure" machine allowed her to embrace her art again and allowed her to express herself. Margaret says Ann is the bravest person she has ever known.

== Artistic career ==
thumb|right|Ann Adams, ''Winter Birds'', made between 1958 and 1992
After she was able to sit up in a wheelchair with a breathing device,<ref name="News-Press" /> she trained herself to draw using a pencil held between her teeth<ref name="News-Press" /> with a mouth grip. An adjustable easel was set up to hold her paper and a tray for paints. She finished her first drawing of a chapel in the woods [ten years after](/source/Ten_Years_After) getting polio.<ref name="FT" /> Each of her works of art took about two months to complete.<ref name="News-Press" /><ref>{{cite book|author=United States Naval Oceanographic Office|title=Bulletin|year=1970|publisher=The Office|page=3}}</ref> She made drawings and paintings that were used in Christmas cards,<ref>{{cite book|title=Journal of Rehabilitation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xlrpAAAAMAAJ|volume=28|year=1962|publisher=National Rehabilitation Association|page=55}}</ref><ref name="News-Press">{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/213542178/?terms=%22Ann%2BAdams%22%2Bpolio |title=Polio Girl Paints Christmas Cards|date=December 29, 1967 |newspaper= News-Press|location=Fort Myers, Florida|access-date=March 25, 2017|page=12 |via=newspapers.com}}</ref> like ''Madonna and Child''.<ref>{{cite book|author=Clifton J. Allen|title=Life is Worth your Best|date=April 1, 1980|publisher=Broadman Press|isbn=978-0-8054-5276-1|page=152}}</ref> She also made drawings for other greeting cards and was nationally known for that work. Some of the drawings included landscapes, puppies, and kittens.<ref name="OS">{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/226664077/?terms=%22Ann%2BAdams%22%2Bpolio |title=Handicap no obstacle to artist's creativity | author=Helene de Groodt |date=April 9, 1981 |newspaper=The Orlando Sentinel |access-date=March 25, 2017|page=1C, 4C |via=newspapers.com}}</ref> The drawings were printed and sold<ref name="FT" /> through her mail-order business.<ref name="OS" />

By 1972, she supported herself with her artwork, living in her own home, and traveling with a portable iron lung. She required constant care and was still spending her nights in an iron lung.<ref name="FT">{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/124748294/?terms=%22Ann%2BAdams%22%2Bpolio |title=Make My Story Joyful 'I Am Not a Tragedy' | author=Sandra Earley Marsh |date=January 8, 1972 |newspaper=Florida Today|location=Cocoa, Florida |access-date=March 25, 2017|page=1D |via=newspapers.com}}</ref> She was still working in 1990.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/176712947/?terms=%22Ann%2BAdams%22%2Bpolio |title=Pretty as a picture |date=November 19, 1990 |newspaper=Florida Today |access-date=March 25, 2017|page=10 |via=newspapers.com}}</ref> She encouraged other people with disabilities and enjoyed reading, listening to music, and cooking.<ref name="OS" />

==Conversion to Roman Catholicism==
Adams was born in a Presbyterian family, but in 1956 converted and was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2012-02-06|title=Ann Adams and the Art of Living - by Dan Paulos|url=http://www.nmia.com/~paulos/annadams.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120206145038/http://www.nmia.com/~paulos/annadams.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2012-02-06|access-date=2020-08-15}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Ann}}
Category:Catholics from Florida
Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism from Presbyterianism
Category:Artists from Jacksonville, Florida
Category:1926 births
Category:1992 deaths
Category:Polio survivors
Category:American artists with disabilities
Category:20th-century American artists

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Ann Adams](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Adams) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Adams?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.