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April 13, 1999Rescuers, family recall sagaBy Susan Serrano Some remember the tension, the gossip, the bickering over movie deals. Cedie Proctor remembers the love. "Everyone pulled together. It was just an outpouring of love. It makes me glad people wanted to help. Thank God," said Proctor, Jessica McClure’s paternal aunt. It’s been nearly 12 years since Jessica took her famous fall down an abandoned water well at a Midland residence, capturing the hearts and inspiring the prayers of a nation. The 18-month-old toddler fell through the well’s 8-inch wide opening Oct. 14, 1987, while playing with other children at a babysitter’s home at 3309 Tanner Drive. |
The Twentieth Century. During 1999, the
Odessa American will look back at some of the people, stories and
historical events that made the 20th Century memorable for residents of
Odessa and the Permian Basin.
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"I guess ... the
hardest part (was) listening to her -- Midland Police Sgt. Andy Glasscock, one of the first to arrive at the scene. |
Crews work to free jessica McClure from the abandoned water well into which she fell in 1987. (OA file photo) |
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It took
rescue workers more than 58 hours to free Jessica, whose ordeal was given
non-stop coverage by news organizations around the world.
"I was there just about the whole time," recalled Midland Police Department Sgt. Andy Glasscock, one of the first to arrive at the scene of Jessica’s accident. "I guess … the hardest part (was) listening to her and not being able to help her," Glasscock said. Proctor awaited news of her niece’s condition at a neighbor’s house, she said. "I saw most of it on TV, (because) there was such a (crowd) of people." Proctor rushed to the well when she learned rescue workers were preparing to bring Jessica out of the well. "I don’t think I can tell anyone how intense it was. I felt overwhelmed," she recalled. "Everybody just seemed to hold their breath." Jessica, now a sixth-grader at a private school in Midland, bears few scars from the ordeal, her aunt says. "She’s doing just fine," Proctor said. "She looks like any other 12-year-old. She’s tall and lanky like her daddy. If the bangs blow back, we get to see her small scar." The accident left Jessica with a scar on her forehead and an amputated right little toe. Jessica’s parents — Chip and Reba "Cissy" McClure — divorced a few years after the accident and both have since remarried. Both have tried to keep a low profile about their daughter’s experience, and generally have been unavailable for media interviews. Attempts to reach Chip McClure, who Proctor said is divorced from his second wife and lives in the Grapevine area, were unsuccessful. Cissy, whose last name is now Porter, also could not be reached for comment. Jessica lives with Cissy and her stepfamily in Greenwood, Proctor said. Since Chip and Cissy McClure divorced, Proctor sees Jessica only occasionally, she said. "If we happen to see her at the mall, she hugs us and is all smiles and off she goes," Proctor said. The McClure family already was reeling from the loss of a brother — Rod, who died in May 1987 — at the time of Jessica’s accident, Proctor said. The family’s father, Mac McClure, died a year later. "(Jessica) was the bright beam," Proctor said. "The tragedy didn’t take all three of them." The event had special significance to others as well. Odessa American Photographer Scott Shaw landed a Pulitzer Prize for his photo of the newly rescued infant surrounded by weary-eyed rescuers. Shaw, who was 24 years old and had only been working as a professional photographer for two years at the time he snapped the prize-winning shot, is now a staff photographer at the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper. The aftermath of the rescue had a darker side for some, however. "I’m proud to be part of it, but it also humbled me to realize how big a jerk I had been," Glasscock said. The stress of the rescue effort, the constant calls from the media and the movie deal that followed all took its toll on his family, Glasscock said. "It nearly caused me a divorce. I basically abandoned my family," he recalled. "At the time it was the biggest and most exciting thing I’d ever done. I let it go to my head." Many of those involved in Jessica’s rescue have since suffered from post traumatic stress, Glasscock said. Glasscock said he has required counseling to help him cope with the stress surrounding the rescue. Robert O’Donnell, the Midland paramedic who freed Jessica from the abandoned well, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1995. Odessa American reports at the time indicated O’Donnell suffered from depression and post traumatic stress syndrome after the incident and the controversy surrounding a movie made about the event. "He had PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) and nobody realized it," Glasscock said. "He couldn’t let it go." The reason reporters swarmed the scene clamoring for the latest word on Jessica’s condition is no mystery to Glasscock, he said. "The world was pretty much looking for something positive. This was something they just gripped on," he explained. "We got a little girl out alive, that was the most important part." |
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