| piemaker720 |
10-17-2007 04:16 PM |
20 Years Later, Baby Jessica a Wife, Mother and Soon-to-Be Millionaire
1 Attachment(s)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,302523,00.html
Attachment 1626
Quote:
The 18-month old girl pulled from a backyard well two decades ago is now a young wife and mother — one waiting to collect donations given to her during her ordeal that are expected to total $1 million or more.
The anniversary of Jessica McClure's rescue passed Tuesday like almost every other day in the 21-year-old's life, with no public comment from her about the event that once captivated viewers around the world.
The young wife and mother is living quietly in this West Texas oil patch city, the same one where she fell into the backyard well.
Many of the sympathetic strangers who remained glued to television coverage until Jessica was freed from 22 feet below the ground showered her family with teddy bears, homemade gifts, cards and cash. It will remain in a trust fund until she turns 25.
Jessica has no memory of the ordeal, the loss of part of one foot, and the 15 operations that followed the 2 1/2 days she spent wedged all alone in the well, singing about Winnie the Pooh.
Chip McClure said that he and Jessica's mother allowed their daughter to decide whether to talk to the media once she got old enough. Jessica has spoken publicly only twice since 1987.
In June, Jessica told NBC that the ordeal "couldn't cage me then, why should it cage me now?"
In 2002, she told Ladies Home Journal that talk of her "incident" bored her and referred to the scars she bore
In 1995, paramedic and rescuer Robert O'Donnell, who wriggled into the passageway and slathered a frightened Jessica in petroleum jelly before sliding her out into the bright television lights, shot and killed himself at his parents' ranch outside Midland.
His brother, Rick, has said O'Donnell's life "fell apart" because of the stress of the rescue, the attention it created and the anticlimactic return to everyday life.
In 2004, William Andrew Glasscock Jr., a former Midland police officer who helped in the rescue, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison on charges of sexual exploitation of a child and improper storage of explosives. A year later, he was sentenced to 20 years on two state charges of sexual assault.
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I remember this story and like others were glued to the tv to see them pull that baby out alive. I wondered whatever happened to her. I'm glad to know she is doing good.
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