Baby Jessica, 20 years later

Nation & World News

20-year anniversary of the rescue of Baby Jessica McClure, who fell into an abandoned water well near Midland, Texas

Crews worked around the clock in October 1987 to rescue Jessica McClure, who fell into an abandoned water well near Midland, Texas. A poll taken by The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press in 1997 that measured coverage of Princess Diana's death earlier that year found that in the previous decade, only Jessica's rescue rivaled the Paris car accident in worldwide attention.

Many of the sympathetic strangers who remained glued to television coverage until Jessica was freed from 22 feet below the ground showered her family with teddy bears, homemade gifts, cards and cash. It will remain in a trust fund until she turns 25.

Jessica has no memory of the ordeal, the loss of part of one foot, and the 15 operations that followed the 2 1/2 days she spent wedged all alone in the well, singing about Winnie the Pooh. She was pulled from the well on Oct. 16, 1987.

Jessica McClure is seen with her mother and father, Chip and Cissy, after her rescue in 1987. About three years after the TV cameras left Midland, Chip and Cissy divorced. Each has remarried.

Photo of Jessica McClure taken shortly before she fell into the well in 1987.

Jessica McClure when she was 6. The 18-month old girl pulled from a backyard well two decades ago is now a young wife and mother -- one waiting to collect donations given to her during her ordeal that are expected to total $1 million or more.

Jessica McClure, known to the world as "Baby Jessica," receives her high school diploma on May 28, 2004 at Greenwood High School near Midland, Texas. The young wife and mother is living quietly in this West Texas oil patch city, the same one where she fell into the backyard well.

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Crews worked around the clock in October 1987 to rescue Jessica McClure, who fell into an abandoned water well near Midland, Texas. A poll taken by The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press in 1997 that measured coverage of Princess Diana's death earlier that year found that in the previous decade, only Jessica's rescue rivaled the Paris car accident in worldwide attention.

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