104-year-old skydiver, Dorothy Hoffner, dies days after unofficially setting world’s record

CHICAGO — Dorothy Hoffner, 104, may be in the running for the record books after completing a skydive, making her the oldest skydiver ever, but a week after her record-breaking jump, she died.

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Close friend Joe Conant told the Chicago Tribune that Hoffner died peacefully in her sleep on Monday.

Conant said her death was unexpected.

“She was just indefatigable. She just kept going,” Conant told the newspaper.

Brookdale Senior Living Center confirmed her death, WMAQ reported.

Hoffner last week performed her fall, stuck the landing, grabbed her walker and greeted the crowd who had gathered to watch her jump.

“Age is only a number, ya’know?” she told reporters last week.

While a crowd did watch her jump, her family wasn’t there, because she didn’t tell them what she was doing. They found out the next day when she handed them a newspaper with a photo of herself mid-air, the Tribune reported.

She had unofficially broken the record for the oldest tandem parachute jump set in 2022 by a 103-year-old woman in Sweden, The Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Skydive Chicago was working to get Hoffner’s jump certified as the record, WLS reported last week.

This wasn’t her first skydive. She jumped from a plane when she was 100, according to the television station.

Skydive Chicago said they were proud to have been part of Hoffner’s jump.

“We are deeply saddened by Dorothy’s passing, and feel honored to have been part of making her world record skydive a reality,” a spokesperson told WMAQ. “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.”

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