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Young woman has quite a yearBy LILLIAN ZIERThe Salina JournalBELLEVILLE—Each year as she was growing up, Jana Stump watched the state Junior Miss contest presented in her hometown.Her family served as hosts for the contestants, and it became a goal of Jana’s to participate in the pageant.In 1989, Junior Miss changed its name to the Young Woman of the Year contest to better reflect women’s roles in modem society. Jana approved of the change.And by the age of 17, she had become articulate, pretty, athletic and friendly. She was the quintessential Young Woman of the Year.Except for one thing. Jana uses a wheelchair.But that didn’t matter on March 20, when the 18-year-old Belleville senior was named the Kansas Young Woman of the Year.“I’ve been on Cloud Nine for the past two weeks now,” Stump said recently.As the state winner, Stump will go to Mobile, Ala., on June 15 to prepare for the national contest, which will be conducted June 24-26.Stump doesn’t know of any other contestants who have used wheelchairs, and she recently received a letter from one of the national judges.“She said I’d probably be making history,” Stump said.Stump’s story starts long before the accident that left her paralyzed from the waist down. As a girl, she was active in athletics, was a featuredbaton twirler, a cheerleader, a member of the dance choir.“My life was basketball, volleyball, track,” she said.But then, the summer after her freshman year, she was riding with a friend to another friend’s house in the country. The car crossed railroad tracks and the driver lost control. Her friend was OK, but Stump couldn’t feel her legs after the accident. She had suffered a spinal cord injury and was paralyzed.She spent the next eight weeks at Asbury-Salina Regional Medical Center, and then was transferred to Craig Hospital in Englewood,► See TALENTED, Page 11
Newspaper Details
Salina Journal
Salina, Kansas, US
Sun, Apr 25, 1993
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 08 Jan 2020
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