- Tiny Broadwick
Tiny Broadwick (born April 8, 1893 in
Oxford, North Carolina – died 1978 in California), or Georgia Broadwick, was a pioneering parachutist.She was nick-named 'Tiny' as she weighed only 85 pounds and was four foot tall.Born Georgia Ann Thompson, at the age of 15 she saw Charles Broadwick's World Famous Aeronauts parachute from a hot air balloon and decided to join the travelling troupe. She later became Broadwick's adopted daughter.
Among her many achievements, she was the first woman to parachute from an airplane on Jan. 9, 1914 (jumping from a plane piloted by
Glenn L. Martin , 2,000 feet overGriffith Park in Los Angeles) and the first woman to parachute into water.In 1914, she demonstrated parachutes to the U.S. Army. On one of her demonstration jumps, she got tangled in her
static line and had to cut herself free, becoming the first person tofree-fall .By the time of her retirement from jumping in 1922, she was said to have made over 1,100 jumps. She is one of the only female members of the
Early Birds of Aviation .She is buried in Sunset Gardens in
Henderson, North Carolina .In February 2006, Vance County commissioners decided to name a portion of the Henderson Outer Loop highway after her.
External links
* [http://www.ncmarkers.com/Markers.aspx?sp=Markers&sv=G-117 North Carolina Historical Marker]
* [http://www.parachutehistory.com/women/broadwickt.html ParachuteHistory.com]
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