Tiny Broadwick
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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 over Griffith 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 to free-fall.
By the time of her retirement from jumping in 1922, she was said to have made over 1,100 jumps. She is the only female member 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.
