"JENNY STUDYING BE A DOCTOR & RUNNING
FOR MISS AMERICA PARALYZED FROM DIVING ACCIDENT"
by judy joy jones


Running for Miss America and studying to be a doctor, at the tender age of 18, Jenny dove into a shallow lake and broke her neck and from that moment on her young life changed forever.

Jenny's severe spinal cord injury left her unable to move any part of her body except for her fingertips. She attended the most advanced rehabilitation center in the country who taught her how to function as a paraplegic including training her attendants.

Jenny had extremely supportive parents who helped her complete college while living alone in her own apartment. Her attendants had to tie Jenny into bed before they left for the night to keep her severe spasms from throwing her on the floor.

She was an intensely independent and motivated young woman. When most people would have given up, Jenny smiled and kept going full speed ahead from the confines of her wheelchair. She made new realistic goals and worked hard to obtain them.

Of course her dream of running for Miss America was history, but her brilliant mind enabled her to obtain her masters degree in vocational rehabilitation. Jenny used her mouth to hold pencils to operate her computer.

And getting her driver's license to be able to drive her own van was another dream Jenny never accomplished due to her violent spasms. But she continued to have experimental surgeries, in the hopes of controlling the spasms which unfortunately did not work.

I lived close to Jenny and secured a job through the college to be one of her attendants to help support my budding art career! We became close friends and she was a major mentor and guide in my life. I grew in leaps and bounds mentally and spiritually around Jenny.

I would load Jenny and her wheelchair into the back of her van and off we would go! One time we went to a Hollywood producers house where I, with Jenny's support, pitched my movie script proposal to him.

Another time we attended an art show in La Jolla, California of Francoise Gilot who was once the mistress of the famous painter Picasso. Dr. Jonas Salk, who discovered the polio vaccine was Francoise's husband at the time and I was thrilled to have had the opportunity to meet both of them. Her paintings looked exactly like Picasso's!

Jenny helped me (or tried to help me as I am something of a rebel) with one of my medical inventions and continued to be a critical guide in my life, pushing me to go beyond my fears of getting my art in the world. At that time, I was unaware that female painters were still 'on the back of the bus' and that I would have to work a trillion times harder then I had realized to get my art out. I have and still am!

Through her forty operations, never did Jenny’s beautiful eyes stop twinkling and her amazing sense of humor kept all of her attendants, family and friends in complete awe of her.

I do not believe anyone ever heard Jenny complain. She talked to her family over the phone nightly and I am certain their support gave her the added strength necessary to keep going beyond obstacles most people could never have endured.

One night, two men broke into her apartment. Jenny's attendant had already tied her to her bed to control her spasms before leaving for the night. Jenny was totally alone and saw the men coming towards her but had absolutely no way to escape. At that exact moment, her two cockatiels started squawking so loudly, they scared off the assailants!

Never did I hear Jenny angry, even when I was driving her in her van and turned a corner too fast, tipping her over in her wheelchair. Her twinkling eyes poured loving acceptance straight into my heart.

She was annoyed when one of her attendants stole her van but even then Jenny's keen intelligence kept her on the path of teaching instead of blaming and the attendant continued to work for her long after the incident.

Jenny made her transition at 38 leaving behind a woman with a tremendous will
to become all she was ever meant to be in spite of obstacles that might stop most people from reaching for their star.

How many people were fortunate enough to have crossed the path of this most remarkable young and beautiful woman will never be known but because Jenny graced this earth, our lives were touched by an angel that changed each of us for the better forever.

Beautiful Jenny; Angel of Wisdom, Thank-You!

Judy Joy Jones

(This is an updated previously published article. I hope you enjoy the beautiful essence of "Jenny"!)