W O M E N ’ S H I ST O RY M O N T H B O N U S PAG E S
KILLEEN DAILY HERALD | SUNDAY, MARCH 16, 2025
1
Belton woman turns tragedy into triumph; hopes to inspire others BY JOHN CLARK HERALD CORRESPONDENT
BELTON – Lynette Connell Jones enjoys horseback riding, singing, skating, skiing, scuba diving, big game hunting, fishing, public speaking, and whatever else she can talk her husband into — and she does all these things in spite of a devastating car crash nearly 26 years ago that left her permanently paralyzed from the chest down. It was the first day of Oct. 1999 and the former Killeen and Harker Heights resident was working in marketing for several radio stations in Waco when tragedy struck. “I had dropped my son off at daycare and had gone into the office,” she said. “The thought on the calendar that day was, ‘Don’t let the need for perfection paralyze you.’ I always thought I needed to be perfect. Now, my (first) marriage had failed (and) I was taking a new job where I had a lot to learn. I was a single parent, my parents had died. “Basically, I was just trying to find myself, and at 2:20 p.m., I was headed to an event for the radio station and I reached down to my right to pick up the directions – I didn’t know Waco at all – and my front tires went off the road on Highway 6. I turned the steering wheel with my left hand and it over-corrected and rolled six times, and I broke my neck. “I was in a brand new, white,
’99, four-wheel drive (Chevrolet) Suburban and it was completely crushed. I remember hearing the crunching of the metal and all I knew to do was sing, ‘Jesus Loves Me.’ Between hearing the metal crushing and being thrown from the vehicle … I don’t have any memory of that, but however I was thrown out – with my seatbelt on – saved my life.” Lynette was 32 years old then. She moved with her family to Killeen from their hometown Harlingen in South Texas in 1982. She finished her junior and senior years at Killeen High School and graduated in 1984. She had developed a passion for music and went on to study vocal performance for four years at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos (now Texas State University), then got married and moved back to Killeen. She worked 10 years in marketing for KOOV radio station in Copperas Cove, taught voice lessons, and performed in community theater musicals at what was then called Vive Les Arts theater. Then came the move to Waco and everything changed. “My parents were older and they both got sick and I had my son, Kyle – he was born in ’95 – and then they both passed away, and due to all the circumstances that had gone on, my husband and I ended up divorcing and Kyle and I moved to Waco in August of ‘99,” Lynette said.
COURTESY PHOTO
Lynette Jones learned to snow ski despite being paralyzed from the chest down following a traffic accident in Waco.
“When I had the wreck, they (emergency responders) came to me, and I knew phone numbers (and) addresses. I was coherent, and then everything went dark and both my lungs collapsed. “I don’t remember but I guess they told my family that afternoon that I would be paralyzed from the chest down and may not be able to move my arms or
anything. They did the surgery and I was in a halo and had a feeding tube and breathing tube for quite some time.” Somewhat surprisingly, throughout her hospital stay and subsequent four months of rehab at TIRR in Houston, Lynette never felt sorry for herself and never once felt despair over
her condition. “I can’t explain this (but) I always had hope,” she said. “I always somehow knew all of this was happening for a reason. I had fear that without the use of my hands (and) and legs, how I would care for my son. How PLEASE SEE TRIUMPH, 4