Talk about going out as a legend.
Many of us will go our whole lives being too afraid to skydive, and I will probably fall into that category when it’s all said and done. But for 104-year-old Dorothy Hoffner, she lived for the thrill.
Hoffner passed away on Monday morning, just days after breaking the world record for the world’s oldest skydiver, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Her cause of death was not immediately released.
A spokesperson for Skydive Chicago & U.S. Parachute Association said she lived an “exciting, well-lived life.”
Hoffner shattered the record on October 1st, safely landing a 13,500-foot tandem jump at Skydive Chicago Airport in Ottawa, Illinois. After completing the seven-minute jump, she told the crowd:
“Age is just a number.”
She beat out the previous record that was set in 2022 by 103-year-old Swedish woman Linnea Ingegard. Skydive Chicago is working with Guinness to make the record official. This wasn’t Hoffner’s first rodeo, as she skydived at 100-years-old previously.
The Skydive Chicago spokesperson told the outlet:
“Skydiving is an activity that many of us safely tuck away in our bucket lists. But Dorothy reminds us that it’s never too late to take the thrill of a lifetime.”
While making the 2.5 mile jump above the rural Midwest landscape, witnesses said she was “calm and confident.” After the jump, Hoffner weighed in on the experience:
“The whole thing was delightful, wonderful, couldn’t have been better.”
She also told reporters that she was thinking about getting her 109-year-old neighbor to join her on her next jump, and also said she wanted to take a ride in a hot air balloon next.
She would’ve turned 105 in December.
RIP to a true legend.
