As a tribute to the accomplishments of women throughout Ohio's rich and diverse history, GOWIO will 
feature women on our Web site. Learn about world-renowned poet Nanette Ferrall, born on April 15, 1960, in St. Marys, Ohio. She attended St. Marys Memorial High School, excelling in both academics and athletics. She received varsity letters in basketball, gymnastics, and track. She was a member of the choir, the Girls Athletic Association, the M‑Club (a local school‑based club), Thespians, and Y-Teens, and she was active with the school newspaper, the Blue Print. On the evening of graduation day, June 4, 1978, on her way home from a graduation party, Ferrall was involved in a tragic automobile accident in which she suffered a spinal‑cord injury that left her paralyzed from the waist down. She was not expected to walk again. Her life turned, but it did not end. With the support of family and friends and with six months of recovery and rehabilitation behind her, Ferrall enrolled at Wright State University, graduating in 1983. While at Wright State, she met Dr. Jerrold Petrofsky, a professor of biomedical engineering and physiology who had developed a computerized electronic system that stimulated muscles with small jolts of electricity in order to enhance muscle tone and increase circulation to a paralyzed limb. Working with Dr. Petrofsky, Ferrall made history. On November 11, 1982, four years after her accident, she took five dramatic steps and became the first paraplegic ever to walk.