Longtime Lake Highlands resident Jill Gunnels says the best thing about having knee replacement surgery has been hearing from old friends. Jill is featured in new television ads for Baylor Healthcare System, and her southern twang and spunky spirit make her easily identifiable (see the ad here).

Jill was recommended for the ad by Anna Bingham, the hospital staff member who gave her information on how the surgery would work. “After the surgery, she brought be coffee and showed me her wedding album, and a sweet friendship formed,” Jill said. Then Jill went to a casting call – “we needed to see if you could talk,” they confided. (I’ll bet those of you who know Jill are chuckling now. Oh boy, can she.)

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Once she was chosen, the two day filming marathon began at studios in Las Colinas. “We got the star treatment, with golf carts to carry us around and someone to do our hair and makeup.” Later, Baylor hosted a luncheon for her “pledge class” to show them their commercials before they aired. “They told us unpaid patient testimonials work better than paid endorsements, even by celebrities.”

I first met Jill when she was the P.E. teacher for my children at Highlander School. Bumps and bruises from snow skiing and an old drill team injury wore her knees out, making exercise difficult and surgery necessary. She opted to have both knees done at the same time, looking forward to the surgery as a new experience and a chance to meet new people, but doing TV ads was an unexpected twist. One day her postman even recognized her, saying he’d just seen her face on a billboard on I-35 in Oak Cliff. Now, all her former students see it as they travel home from college in Waco or Austin. She even got a chance to speak about the surgery at a leadership conference with Baylor Healthcare CEO Joel Allison, also a resident of LH.

Perhaps Jill’s greatest and most lasting contribution to LH will be her role in helping the LH Junior Women’s League get their start. When several energetic young women came to the LH Women’s League, looking for help in beginning their own group, Jill chaired the committee that advised them and assisted with paperwork. Five years later the group is going strong and making extraordinary contributions to the community, but most members don’t know Jill’s face. Luckily, they’ll get a chance next time her commercial airs.