‘Jessica Day’ to Celebrate Girl’s Rescue from Well

On a day named for Jessica McClure, the men and women who helped rescue the toddler from an abandoned well will be honored with a parade, speeches and an Air Force formation salute.

In proclaiming today Jessica McClure Day, Gov. Bill Clements said Wednesday that “Texans . . . continue to marvel at the strength and resolve evidenced by Jessica McClure and her rescuers before and after her dramatic rescue.

“That strength and determination have drawn the collective respect of those in Texas, the United States and throughout the world.”

Rescue a Community Effort

About 450 police officers, firefighters, utility employees and others worked around the clock to save the 19-month-old girl after she fell into the well two weeks ago. While trapped in the dark below ground for 58 1/2 hours, she sang “Winnie-the-Pooh.”

Doctors at Midland Memorial Hospital on Wednesday upgraded Jessica’s condition to “satisfactory” and she was no longer under intensive care.

She will not participate in today’s festivities but her parents, Chip and Cissy McClure, will be there, organizer Norma Webb said.

“Various people were trying to honor the volunteers, and it was too fragmented, so they (the McClures) asked the city and chamber to put it together,” said Webb, a Chamber of Commerce volunteer.

The parade of the volunteers, high school bands and the Midland College drill team, with Mickey Mouse and Winnie-the-Pooh visiting from Disneyland, is to start at the hospital and end at Centennial Plaza downtown.