Wednesday, Aug. 20, 1997 | 9:07 a.m.
But the little girl who remains hospitalized at Washoe Medical Center is out of her coma, writing her name, and improving every day.
Tamra was injured in a July 17 accident that left her in a coma. Her mother has pleaded innocent to drunken driving charges.
On Aug. 6, Rimes visited the girl at her bedside after a concert in Reno and sang a lullaby version of her No. 1 hit, "Blue."
Tamra's family had hoped that hearing the voice of her idol might rouse the little girl from her long sleep.
It apparently helped.
"She is out of the coma," a hospital spokeswoman said on Tuesday. "It's going to be a long time until she makes a complete recovery."
Tamra's mother, Debra Diehl, said her daughter does not remember the visit she received from her favorite singer. But she has seen pictures taken of Rimes kneeling at her bedside.
"She gets a big smile on her face. She laughs and everything," Debra Diehl said. "She started coming out of the coma ever since that day LeAnn Rimes came here. We are very thankful to her."
Tamra lapsed into unconsciousness when she was thrown from her mother's pickup truck when it rolled over along Pyramid Highway north of Reno four days before her seventh birthday. She was not wearing a seat belt.
Debra Diehl, 46, pleaded innocent on Tuesday to a felony charge of drunken driving.
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