Fame Lingers for Now-Grown 'Baby Jessica'
Feb. 2, 2003 -- 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.
"I love to ride 4-wheelers and play with my cats," she said. "I'm 16 now and so I can date — I want to date!"
Her parents have kept her away from the media since she was rescued. She says she has no recollection of the incident that made her famous, no remembrance of the rescue.
"I don't have any memory of it at all," McClure said. "Everybody asks me that question. I answer 'I don't know.' I saw footage of me on Rescue 911 and it broke my heart to think that happened to a little girl and someone told me, 'honey, that's you' … It made me cry."
Her family life has changed since her toddler days. Her parents divorced in 1990, and have both since remarried. But all the singing she did down in the well might be a clue about her future. McClure says she wants to be a professional singer, or at least a singing teacher, and she would like to have four children of her own.
Although McClure doesn't consciously remember it, the horrific accident has left her with a fear of small spaces.
"When I was young I had horribly bad nightmares of being trapped in tight places," McClure said. "I'm very claustrophic."
Scars Are Positive Reminder
Even though she doesn't literally remember what happened, there are reminders that will never go away.
"My hip has a foot long scar from where they took skin to put on my foot … my foot is completely deformed," McClure said. "I have four toes … I have a scar on my forehead."
The scars don't bother her, though.
"They remind me that I'm a survivor and that God loves me," McClure said.
She has also been diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, which may be a result of her blood transfusions, but is more likely genetic.
Besides the physical reminders of what happened to her, there are verbal ones.
"I've heard from many mothers [who say], "All I did was watch all 58 hours of the tape … and I've had many people tell me 'do you know how you touched me?'" McClure said. "I find that very flattering."