In 1963, Al Staples died in an automobile accident. This led to a second marriage, to airplane pilot Fred McClintock, who was a friend of her husband. This marriage shortly ended in a divorce in 1967. Jessica McClintock was a school teacher in Marblehead, Massachusetts, 1966–68 and Long Island, New York, 1968. After the divorce, McClintock and her son Scott moved to San Francisco, California. McClintock continued her career as a school teacher at Nimitz Elementary School in Sunnyvale, California, 1964–65 and 1968–69.