Fame Lingers for Now-Grown 'Baby Jessica'
Feb. 2 -- At 16, she is nearly a card-carrying adult, but people still associate Jessica McClure with the famous baby that she was.
"Everybody knows I'm baby Jessica," McClure said in an interview that aired on VH1's Where Are They Now?. "My first day at school one of the guys said 'what's your name?' I said 'Jessica McClure,' and he said, 'don't tell me you're that baby girl who fell down the well.' Well, being anonymous just flew out the window."
For three days in 1987, the world held its breath while the 18-month-old girl was wedged into an impossibly tiny well, just 8 inches wide, 22 feet below ground.
"Baby Jessica" — as she was immediately dubbed — had been left unattended for just a moment in the backyard of her aunt's day care center in Midland, Texas when she fell into the well. For the next 58 hours her frantic parents and an army of 400 rescue workers and volunteers concentrated on a seemingly impossible rescue, while a nation waited right alongside them. The little girl sang about "Winnie the Pooh" to while away the time while she waited to be rescued.
Then, in the dark of night on Oct. 16, 1987, amid a sea of media and onlookers, the prayers were answered.
"The moment we've been waiting for!! She's out!! She's alive!" one television anchor cried as the little girl was pulled out of the well at last.
Entering A Media Maelstrom
After almost 2 ½ days in the well, McClure had been covered with dirt and bruises and her right palm was frozen to her face when she was pulled to safety and rushed to a waiting ambulance. Then, after five weeks and six surgeries — the first round of many to come — McClure left the hospital and entered a media maelstrom.
There were press conferences and meetings with President Reagan. Then came the establishment of a multi-million dollar trust fund, to remain untouched until Jessica turns 25, which is now just nine years away.
Though she leads a typical teen life, her early brush with fame lingers, said McClure, a tall, blond teen who now lives in Tyler, Texas with her father and stepmother.
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