Thursday, October 17, 2002
15 years later, Jessica doing just fine
By the Associated Press
ODESSA, Texas (AP) - The 18-month-old toddler who captured the attention of the world when she fell down a well 15 years ago is a normal, happy teenager these days.
Jessica McClure was wedged all alone in the well, 22 feet below ground, for almost 60 hours, singing about Winnie the Pooh.
When paramedic Steve Forbes rose slowly from a rescue shaft 2 1/2 days later with Jessica in his arms the evening of Oct. 16, 1987, Odessa American photographer Scott Shaw captured the moment in a photograph that would win the Pulitzer Prize.
Her head was bandaged; she was covered with dirt and bruises; her right palm was immobilized to her face.
The world breathed a collective sigh of relief.
After one made-for-television movie and a decade and a half later, people still want to know about Jessica, her father's sisters -- Donna Johnson and Cedie Proctor -- told the Odessa American.
"I guess it's natural for people to wonder how she's doing and what she looks like, now that she's a teenager," Proctor said.
"People from all over the world called us and told us they were praying for her. I just want to let them know that she's a normal girl, that she's well and happy, and that their prayers were answered."
More than $700,000 in donations was placed into a trust for Jessica, to be given to her when she is 25.
"When the 10th anniversary of the rescue was close, the producers of a TV show `Whatever Happened To?' wanted to do a story about Jessica because they had asked viewers for names of people whose stories they would like to see on the show, and Jessica's name was at the top of the list," Johnson said.
But Chip and Cissy McClure, Jessica's parents, avoided talking to the media once the initial rush of interviews was over, hoping to keep their daughter out of the spotlight. Still, people wondered what became of the girl in the well.
They divorced in 1990, and both have remarried.
A recent color photograph of 16-year-old Jessica McClure and an exclusive interview with the girl and her mother appears in the November 2002 issue of Ladies Home Journal.
"Jessica is tall and thin like her daddy. She's all legs and arms," Proctor said.
"She's just a normal teenage girl who always has a smile. She's a very loving, respectful child."
Until the start of the current school year, Jessica was living with her mother and stepfather in Greenwood, a few miles east of Midland. Last spring, she finished her sophomore year at Midland Christian High School.
Chip McClure now lives in Tyler, where he sells airplanes.
"Jessica visited Chip for two weeks this summer, and while she was there, she asked him if she could come live with him. Her parents were divorced when she was so little. She wanted to know what it's like to live with her daddy."
Proctor said Chip McClure told her he'd discuss it with her mother, and soon after, he showed up in Greenwood, helping Jessica to load up her belongings.
"She's lived in Tyler since August and attends a private school there," Proctor said.
Johnson said she talked to her brother about two weeks ago, and he said Jessica was adjusting well to school.
"She asked her dad not to tell anybody at her new school who she was, that she was the little girl who fell down the well," Johnson said. "She wanted to know that people liked her for who she was. And when the other kids found out, they just told her they think it's 'cool'."