When Jennifer Wall was a young student at Mark Twain Elementary School in Pasco in the 1970s, she progressed like any other student – despite a hearing impairment that left her with 94% hearing loss in her left ear when she was born. 

Her right ear wasn’t much better.

By the time she was a teenager and wearing a hearing aid, her hearing loss improved some to 78% in her left ear.

Preferring to listen to the sound of her dreams, not the silence of her hearing loss, she grew up refusing to consider herself handicapped. 

Those dreams included someday competing in the Miss America Pageant. And in 1989, they came true.

Jennifer competed in the pageant as Miss Washington, a crowning achievement that included her piano recital in the talent portion despite being unable to hear certain notes while playing.

Jennifer Wall was crowned in 1989.

| Still image from YouTube video, krzy4krs

On the national stage, among the 50 contestants, Jennifer was a top 10 finisher, winning $7,000 for her performance in Atlantic City on Sept. 16, 1989.

She played “Opus 706” on the piano, a composition by Kevin Wilhelm Kern, described as creating a “dreamy and introspective mood.”

The piece featured “a beautiful romantic, floating melody paired with glowing, arpeggiated chords in the left hand, capturing the signature peaceful and expressive nature of New Age piano music.”

Jennifer’s road to a top 10 finish in the pageant began after winning the Miss Washington Pageant as Miss Issaquah, where her family settled after several years in Pasco, and where she attended Issaquah High School.

She was born in Provo, Utah, and experienced fetal distress that caused her hearing loss.

“You know how they slap a baby on the bottom and they cry,” she said during a return visit to Pasco soon after being crowned Miss Washington. “I wasn’t crying and I wasn’t breathing.”

During the minutes of her breathing loss, she was without oxygen. “I was losing my hearing cells. They were being destroyed,” she said.

For years, neither Wall nor anyone else knew about the hearing loss. Wall thought what she could hear was natural and unknowingly compensated by learning to lip read.

“Because I was lip reading, the doctors didn’t diagnose my hearing loss until I was 5 years old,” she said.

Her parents began suspecting a problem because she talked infrequently while a sister two years younger carried on with the natural banter of children her age. 

An examination revealed the hearing loss.

When she was 6, her parents, Tim and Martha Wall, settled in Pasco in the River View area while Jennifer’s father worked as a sales marketing manager for Western Farmers.

“The Tri-Cities was very homey,” Jennifer said. “It was a place you would want your family to grow up in.”

Despite the hearing loss, Jennifer’s speech became distinct.

She took considerable speech therapy, and as a child in Pasco attended the Hanford Deaf School, which no longer exists.

Jennifer didn’t let her hearing loss keep her from enjoying a normal childhood. She cultivated a love for reading and dancing and also became a water sports enthusiast.

Beginning when she was about 8, she became a paper carrier, delivering the Tri-City Herald, a job continuing for the next 2 ½ years. She began piano lessons at the same time, developing a talent that helped take her to the Miss Washington title.

“I just had a lot of determination as a child to master my piano and do well,” said Wall, who disciplined herself to 5:30 a.m. wake-up calls to practice each morning.

“My mother was a real strength in making sure her child did everything normal and to lead a normal life.”

Though some notes on the piano went unheard by Jennifer, those listening to her performances could not detect it, as Wall relied on touch to produce the right sound while playing.

“I guess you could say touch is my strongest aspect on the piano,” she said.

Despite a natural shyness, friends persuaded Jennifer to enter the Miss Issaquah Pageant during her senior year of high school, convincing her it was a growth experience.

“They said you would come out a more polished person, more aware of yourself and about things you could do and they were right,” Jennifer said.

She set a goal in her reign as Miss Washington to inspire those with disabilities.

“I (wanted) to touch them through whatever means, whether they hear me speak or perhaps through my music,” she said.

During her Pasco visit soon after becoming Miss Washington and looking ahead to the Miss America Pageant, Jennifer remembered her childhood dream.

“As a little girl I watched the ‘Miss America Pageant’ on TV, and now I’m going to actually set foot on the Miss America stage. I’ve already achieved my dream.”

Gale Metcalf of Kennewick is a lifelong Tri-Citian, retired Tri-City Herald employee and volunteer for the East Benton County Historical Museum. He writes the monthly history column.