This post is another in a series of topics suggested by a special section of our local newspaper which I thought my readers would find interesting. All were things or events from the past that I remember being impressed by.

Today’s event didn’t take place here. It was in West Texas in Midland—the oil capital of the world.

Back on October 14, 1987, the name Jessica McClure was blasted around the world. Eighteen month-old Baby Jessica somehow fell twenty-two feet down into an eight-inch well casing. For the next 58 hours, much of the world remained glued to radios and televisions as her rescue proceeded.

Interest in this story was so great ABC ran a made-for-TV movie in 1989 entitled Everybody’s Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure, starring Patty Duke and Beau Bridges. On May 30th, 2007, USA Today ranked Jessica McClure on a list of “25 lives of indelible impact.” President George Bush is shown in the photo below holding Jessica at the White House in June, 1989:

Due to injuries suffered in the fall and during the 58 hours she spent cramped in the tiny casing, Jessica has had to undergo some 15 surgeries over the years, but she managed to grow up in a fairly normal manner. She graduated from Greenwood High School, near Midland, and married Daniel Morales. They have a son and a daughter.

When she turned 25 in 2011, Jessica received a trust fund of some $800,000 from donations people sent the family. Part of this fund helped the couple purchase their current home, which is less than two miles from the scene of her accident, of which she has no memory.

As I watched the video below, the hair stood up on the back of my neck, and chills ran up and down my spine as if it were just now occurring:

This story may not mean all that much to those of you too young to remember it, but thinking back over the events of that two-and-a-half day period, I can’t imagine anyone who was alive at the time ever forgetting it. What do you remember about this event and the amazing rescue?

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WANA: We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

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Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.