How Old Was Mary When She Went Blind?

Mary Amelia Ingalls was only 14 years old when she became ill with what is today believed to be scarlet fever and eventually lost her eyesight.  Mary’s illness was documented multiple times in their local newspaper, when it was believed to be a “hemorrhage of the brain” and which left her partially paralyzed on her face, which sounds much like a stroke.

Two years later, Mary attended the school for the blind in Vinton, Iowa.