March 17, 1982

Anxious baby starts life in fast lane

       If you want to know about life in the fast lane, just ask Leslie Ann Williams. Of course, you will have to wait a few years for her words to the wise. Being less than a day old now, she will have to first learn how to talk before she can tell you all about it. Leslie Ann’s experience is impressive though: fast cars, police chases flashing red and blue lights…that sort of thing, and all because she was so fast herself. In fact, she beat everyone- the police, her dad, ambulance drivers, the hospital. She just wasn’t going to wait. Leslie, all 7 pounds and 6 ounces of her, rushed to join the world about 10 miles and at least 10 minutes sooner than her mom and dad, James and Sharon Williams, expected. Leslie Ann, whose parents where on the way from their Morgan County home t St. Francis Hospital Center, Beech Grove, was born about 12:30 a.m. today in the family car on State Road 37 just south of the Johnson-Marion County line. State Trooper Rick Kauffman, who had seconds before pulled her father over to ask what the rush was about, assisted father James and mother Sharon at the birth. That’s where the fast cars and flashing lights come in. As Williams sped against the clock and his wife’s labor pains, Trooper Kauffman, on patrol in the area, spotted them and pulled the speeding car over. “The officer clocked me at 94,” Williams said this morning. But for everyone involved, it was Leslie Ann’s speed, not the car’s that was the biggest concern just then. “I really took a chance; I jumped out of my car and ran back to him. I just didn’t have time to wait. I told him “ my wife is ready to have this baby; do you know anything about it? Do you know anything that I ought to know?” Williams said. “I think that probably startled him.” Trooper Kauffman got on his radio, then offered to assist. What must have only been seconds later, Leslie decided it was time to make her world debut. “He and I (and mom Sharon) were the only ones there when the baby was born,” he said. He “was rather excited about it; it was his first time for something like this.” “It went so quick and easy and I’m just thankful there were no complications at all. She wasted no time to start crying and wiggling around.”  Williams said. Very soon after that the night air was full of flashing red and blue lights as White River Township volunteer firefighters, County Sheriff’s Deputies, and a Myers ambulance arrived-a pretty impressive welcoming committee for the young Miss Williams. The ambulance provided somewhat more commodious accommodations for baby and mother for the rest of the journey to St. Francis. Williams said the couple’s first child arrived pretty quickly too. But that time they made it to the hospital with eight minutes to spare. “They told us the second comes quicker and they were right.” He said.  (Reprinted with permission from the Daily Journal)
 
 
 

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