Small in Stature but Giant In Deed; Pioneering Parachutist Tiny Broadwick

As revolutionary as an airplane was in the first years of the 1900s, imagine how extreme someone jumping from these new machines would be. Now, take it a step further and imagine that years before women could even vote, the jumper was a not-quite fifteen-year-old female who made her first jump on the day she first saw a plane. Meet the fearless Tiny Broadwick.

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She was born Georgia Ann Thompson on April 8, 1893, in Oxford, NC. Weighing only three pounds at birth, Tiny’s nickname was bestowed at an early age. Her young life was hard, spent working in the family’s tobacco fields. She was married at age twelve and gave birth to a daughter, Verla, at age thirteen. Soon abandoned by her husband, Tiny took work in a local cotton mill.

In early 1908, just before she turned fifteen, Tiny persuaded a neighbor to take her to Raleigh to see an air show of The Broadwicks and Their Famous French Aeronauts. Aviation was a new phenomenon, with the Wright brothers having made the first flight just five years earlier. The show featured an early star of aviation, Charles Broadwick. Charles was among the first to become widely known as a parachutist, traveling the country with Johnny Jones Exhibitions. He was jumping from hot air balloons multiple times in each show. Those early skydivers were commonly called aeronauts.

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Broadwick had initially performed with his wife, Maude. Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Maude had defied her family to marry Broadwick and join his tour. Sadly, in 1905 in a show in Anderson, S.C., Maude was piloting a balloon from which Charles was to parachute, became entangled in the lines, and fell to her death. Tragically, Broadwick’s next wife, Ethel, would die in a 1920 parachuting accident.

Tiny was immediately enamored with what she saw, later saying, “When I seen this balloon go up, I knew that’s all I wanted to do! I hung around until they came back to the lot where the balloon had left from and told them I wanted to join them. I was hell-bound and determined to get in that act!” She persuaded Broadwick to add her to his show. Tiny took her first parachute jump that day, landing in a blackberry bush.

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Broadwick agreed to adopt Tiny, in part to gain her parents’ permission and to avoid the appearance of an improper relationship. Broadwick dressed her in a silk dress with pink bows and promoted her as “The Doll Girl.” The group toured the country, and Tiny amassed hundreds of jumps, often carrying torches or flares.

In those first few years, the parachutists jumped from balloons. Tiny suffered numerous injuries and close calls, including landings on roofs, electrical wires, a moving train, and once getting caught in a windmill. She also broke several bones in rough landings. Nonetheless, she persevered, and the pair regularly appeared in fairs, carnivals, and air shows around the country.

Tiny attended a giant airshow at Domingus Field in California in 1912. There she took her first airplane flight with aviation pioneer Glenn Martin. She was also introduced to Orville Wright, who said, “I’m glad you’re interested in aviation.” She replied, “I’m mostly interested in parachutes.” An idea for a breakthrough in aviation was hatched that day when Tiny set her sights on parachuting from an airplane.

Even in adulthood, Tiny would reach a height of just over four feet and weigh only eighty-five pounds. Her reach and impact would far exceed her diminutive stature. Perhaps the most remarkable example of that effect was on June 21, 1913, in Los Angeles, CA., when Tiny achieved her goal of becoming the first woman to parachute from an airplane.

On June 23, 1913, the newspaper “The Californian” published a headline, “Girl Jumps From An Aeroplane And Lives.” The article describes Broadwick taking off in a biplane, piloted by Martin, from LA’s Griffith Park. At an altitude of 1,000 feet, Tiny released the lever on her trap seat, dropping her into a fall toward the earth, opening her “life preserver,” as parachutes were often called then, and landing safely in a grain field near the Griffith airfield.

Martin was the inventor of the particular seat and the parachute he called a safety pack. He felt that both could be useful for military operations and pilot safety. Martin and Tiny would get an opportunity to showcase their creations to the military in 1915. A potentially fatal accident there led to another first for Tiny and another advance in parachuting.

Pilots were being killed in Europe because they could not escape a disabled plane. At a June event in San Diego, Martin and Tiny were given a chance to demonstrate their devices and techniques to military observers like Brigadier General George Scriven, chief of the Army’s aviation bureau. On that day, Tiny first completed three successful parachute jumps. Her fourth would be the most impacting.

Early parachutes used static lines attached to the aircraft to open and deploy. On Tiny’s final jump of the day, the parachute’s cords tangled with the plane’s tail, and the airflow prohibited her from reentering the craft. She cut her line, leaving only a short length, then began her descent, soon pulling the remaining line to open her chute. This was the first-ever free fall in skydiving, and the accident unintentionally created the ripcord, which would soon be widely used. Tiny described it as a thrill but said it was “Just as easy as climbing down off a chair.”

Tiny was also the first woman to parachute from a hydroplane. She became the first to land in water when she dived into Lake Michigan, near Chicago. She emerged from the water and presented a wreath to Illinois Governor Edward F. Dunn.

Tiny continued to travel and parachute, including jumps at the 1915 and 1916 San Diego World’s fairs. She retired in 1916 but returned to the sky in 1920, jumping for two years before retiring for good in 1922. She had an estimated 1,100 jumps to her credit.

One of Tiny’s parachutes is enshrined in the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. She is the only female member ever in the Early Birds, an association of those who soloed before 1916. In 1976, she was inducted into the OX 5 Club’s Hall of Fame. The club is named for a WWI aircraft engine and includes Charles Lindbergh and the Wright brothers among its members. She was made an honorary member of the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg.

In 1964, Tiny was honored by the city of Raleigh. The mayor declared “Tiny Broadwick Day,” and the honoree appeared on the Today Show. At the ceremony’s dinner at the Hotel Sir Raleigh, with NC’s Governor in attendance, National Air Museum Director Phillip Hopkins said of Tiny, “Measured in feet and inches, her nickname ‘Tiny’ is obviously appropriate. Measured by her courage and by her accomplishments, she stands tall among her many colleagues — the pioneers of flight.”

After her career in the air, Tiny appeared on television’s You Bet Your Life, To Tell the Truth, Mysteries at the Museum. She died in Long Beach, CA., on August 25, 1978. At the time of her death, she had a daughter, Verla, six grandchildren, twelve great-grandchildren, and four great-great-grandchildren. She was buried in Sunset Gardens in Henderson, NC. The state of North Carolina erected a historical marker in Tiny’s honor near her final resting spot.