My Heroes... Stephen Hopkins...

Stephen Hopkins was a self-educated man. He served in public offices most of his life. He past away in 1785, at age 78, which means he signed the Declaration of Independence at the age of 69. In modern times, he would have been considered past retirement age. I have wondered about his shaky signature on the important document and discovered he suffered from they called "shaking palsy." It did not keep him from serving his country. He hired someone to write for him. His difficulty didn't define him; it was simply a part of him, and he found a way around it.

I loved the movie 1776. It gave me my first impression of Stephen Hopkins. Having read a bit about him, I feel the movie made him more of a caricature, a bit of comic relief rather than true to the man. I would never have guessed he had trouble with palsy. So many of the Founding Fathers overcame so much in order to help birth a free nation.