Clayton Valli

In the spring of 1951, Alice Eaton Valli gave birth to a little boy. Alice and her husband, Frances Valli, were of course very excited. They had traveled all the way from Seabrook, New Hampshire to Newburyport, Massachusetts to give birth to a perfectly healthy and normal baby. However, this little boy was not considered a “normal” baby, because he was deaf. Thus, on May 25, 1951, a great deaf poet was brought into the world. Ladies and gentleman, I bring to you: Clayton Valli.

Clayton Valli grew up in Seabrook, New Hampshire, approximately ten miles from Newburyport, Massachusetts, the town in which he was born. He lived a happy life with his brothers Kim Valli and George Perkins, and his sisters Frances Eaton and Carla Perkins, who were all hearing. In 1978, Valli married his high school sweetheart, Margaret A. Goyer. His wife is rarely mentioned and it is unsure if the two were still married to each other at the time of Valli’s death. However, he may have been gay, according to the books Queerly …show more content…
He was an extremely devoted poet and teacher, who, even after his retirement, continued to share his lessons and conclusions through lectures given throughout Canada and America. His creativity shined through his many co-authored books and original poems. Clayton Valli was as memorable as he was thoughtful and imaginative. He was truly a force of recognition to be reckoned with.

In short, Clayton Valli was a poet of his time. With degrees in both linguistics and American Sign Language poetry, he was an influential writer, or, rather, an inspirational American Sign Language figure in history. His poems brought the Deaf community together, and told of the significance of being deaf in a society in which the hearing are privileged and the Deaf oppressed because of their disorder. He connected the hearing world and the deaf world through his rhyme and and