A Year Later, Her Pals Wish Jessica Anything but Well

--A happy, squirming Jessica McClure unveiled a bronze plaque in Midland, Tex., that commemorates her dramatic rescue one year ago from an abandoned well where she had been stuck for 58 hours. About 150 people crowded in to see artist Mary Griffith’s 4-by-6-foot bas relief at a community center. The work depicts Baby Jessica, now 2 1/2, and the smiling, dusty faces of rescue workers at the moment she was pulled from the well. Jessica’s mother, Cissy McClure, told onlookers that her husband, “Chip, and I are still thanking the Lord for giving us our beautiful baby back. I know that you will always be special to Jessica and I pray that she will always be special to y’all.” Jessica, crying for her mother and singing children’s songs, captured the hearts of millions as live television followed efforts to save her from the 8-inch-wide well in back of her aunt’s house. It took volunteers with donated equipment two days to drill through hard rock to reach the child. Now, her aunt’s house has been sold. The well is still there, but over it is welded a steel plate, inscribed by the welder with another, simpler memorial: “To Jessica, 10-16-87, with love from all of us.”

--Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel, at a Salt Lake City campaign appearance for Republican Utah Gov. Norman H. Bangerter, criticized actor Robert Redford for his approach to protecting the environment. Hodel said the actor is closely linked with “the professional environmentalists,” people who he said were mistaken in suggesting that a choice must be made between protecting the environment and exploiting mineral and energy resources. “Utah can have jobs, national security and an improving environment” by proceeding in “a wise and environmentally sensitive manner,” Hodel said.

--CBS newsman Walter Cronkite resigned from the advisory board of a group that urges government use of English, saying he feared that an Arizona ballot measure the organization supports could hurt minorities. Cronkite said in a letter to U.S. English President Linda Chavez that he “cannot favor legislation that could even remotely be interpreted to restrict the civil rights or the educational opportunities of our minority population,” although he opposes bilingualism. The measure, besides making English the state’s official language, would ban state and local government use of foreign languages except when needed to protect safety and health, to provide interpretation in criminal cases and to comply with federally mandated programs such as multilingual ballots and some children’s education programs.