Just a week after she made headlines when she went skydiving at age 104, Dorothy Hoffner died at home while sleeping Sunday overnight into Monday.
The Chicago woman, who never married or had children, referred to nurse Joe Conant, 62, as her grandson, and Conant tells the New York Times that while Hoffner was “not excited” at first about the attention she got after her jump, she soon “looked at it as an opportunity to meet new people”—though she turned down an opportunity to appear on Drew Barrymore’s talk show.
Conant says he last spoke with Hoffner Sunday at the senior center and she was in good spirits, promising him they’d have dinner soon.
Oct 2, 2023 12:48 PM CDT
A 104-year-old Chicago woman is hoping to be certified as the oldest person to ever skydive after making a tandem jump Sunday and landing 13,500 feet later at a northern Illinois airport.
“Age is just a number,” Dorothy Hoffner told a cheering crowd moments after touching the ground Sunday at Skydive Chicago Airport in Ottawa, about 85 miles southwest of Chicago, the Chicago Tribune reports.
The Guinness World Record for oldest skydiver was set in May 2022 by 103-year-old Linnea Ingegard Larsson from Sweden. But Skydive Chicago is working to have Guinness World Records certify Hoffner’s jump as a record, reports WLS-TV.
This article is a repost from Newser: A Week After Her Last Skydive, Woman Dies at 104