Tiny Broadwick

Broadwick ready to drop from a Martin T airplane piloted by Glenn Martin. Georgia Ann "Tiny" Thompson Broadwick (, later Brown; April 8, 1893August 25, 1978) was an American pioneering parachutist and the inventor of the ripcord. She was the first woman to jump from an airplane, and the first person to jump from a seaplane.

Early life, family and education Born to parents George and Emma Ross on April 8, 1893, Georgia Ann Thompson weighed only . as she weighed only and was tall.

At age 12, Tiny Broadwick had married and, at age 13, had a daughter, Verla Jacobs (later, Poythress) (1906–1985).

Parachuting career

Tiny Broadwick was an abandoned mother working in a cotton mill at age 15, when she saw Charles Broadwick's World Famous Aeronauts parachute from a hot air balloon and decided to join the travelling troupe, leaving her daughter in the care of her parents. She later became Broadwick's adopted daughter to ease travel arrangements, though she has also been referenced as his wife, with her own family later unclear on the relationship. In her early career, she jumped from balloons. Broadwick's wife, Maude, had died on November 2, 1905, performing a jump from a balloon.

Billed as "the doll girl," Tiny Broadwick began performing aerial skydives and stunts while wearing a "life preserver," or parachute, designed by Charles Broadwick, making her first jump out of a hot air balloon on December 28, 1908. The skydiving family traveled around and performed at fairs, carnivals, and parks. The appeal of the Broadwick flying troupe, according to Tiny Broadwick, was that "it was a very neat and fast act."

Among her many other achievements, she was the first woman to parachute from an airplane, which she is sometimes credited with accomplishing over Los Angeles on June 21, 1913, with aviator Glenn L. Martin as the pilot. However, she previously made at least two jumps from Martin's plane during an exhibition in Chicago's Grant Park the week of September 16, 1912. These early jumps included a well-publicized jump on January 9, 1914, from a plane built and piloted by Martin, over Griffith Park in Los Angeles. Also in 1914, Broadwick jumped into Lake Michigan, becoming the first woman to parachute into a body of water. and on To Tell the Truth on March 30, 1964. She was featured on the TV series Mysteries at the Museum season 11, episode 33. In 1963, she was interviewed by reporter Ben Runkle of WRAL and showcased her parachute which she planned to donate to a museum. In 1964, Broadwick donated a parachute, made by Charles Broadwick of 110 yards of silk, to the Smithsonian Air Museum, the precursor to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.