Abandoned Baby Reunites with Rescuers After 53 Years

Quick Smiles:

• Two friends discovered a healthy newborn in a shopping cart at Westgate Shopping Center in 1972.
• Persistence unlocked sealed records, leading Pearl Marshall to her rescuers over five decades later.
• Tears, laughter, and hugs marked their joyful reunion at the historic spot.

In 1972, Rita Marshall and Darlene Gilleland found a newborn girl inside a rustling paper bag in a shopping cart after a movie.

The baby, dressed in yellow and wrapped in a blue blanket, was healthy and soon named Jeanne Westgate.

Pearl Marshall, now a music teacher and wife, uncovered her foundling report when Ohio unsealed adoption records.

“It was a foundling report,” she said. “A Jane Doe certificate. It says, ‘Jeanne Westgate.’”

Historical researcher Chris Gerrett dove into the mystery with enthusiasm.

“I don’t golf. I don’t travel. This is what I do for fun!” Gerrett said.

Gerrett tracked down Rita and Darlene through records and a pivotal phone call.

“I called him… and told him I was looking for a couple women who found an abandoned baby at Westgate in the ’70s… ‘My mother told me that story years ago.’”

“The bag was rustling,” Gilleland remembered.

“I had to get in close because it was dark,” Marshall said. “And I saw her little face, and I said, ‘Darlene, it’s a baby, it’s a baby!’”

The women stayed with the infant until help arrived, never forgetting her.

“I’ve always thought about her,” Marshall said. “Wondered how she was. What she was doing.”

This summer, they reunited amid overwhelming emotion.

“There were a lot of tears, a lot of talking, a lot of laughing, and a lot of hugging,” Gerrett said.

“I feel like our long-lost baby has come home,” Marshall said with a smile.

They revisited the site, now behind a Lowe’s, sharing that fate guided their paths.

“We always felt like someone was watching to make sure we found you,” Marshall and Gilleland told Pearl.

“I won’t forget the day that we found her,” Gilleland said. “And I won’t forget the day that we found her again!”

Celebrate this tale of compassion and connection that spanned generations.

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