Remembered Social Security number leads to identity

Wednesday, January 19th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- For two years, a woman found wandering along Interstate 40 has lived with the name Jane Doe and no memory of her former life. But a few questions by nurses at Presbyterian Hospital in Oklahoma City have unlocked the past and given the woman back her name -- Mary Joyce Howard of High Point, N.C.

Ms. Howard spent most of the past two years in a nursing home, but she was sent to Presbyterian last week because of pneumonia. When nurses asked her some questions about the past, she remembered her Social Security number. Authorities ran a check, contacted her family and an effort is under way to reunite them.