Skydiving grandmother takes the leap at 81 years old

DERBY, Kansas - Perhaps raising kids is hard enough that taking a leap out of an airplane was not much of a challenge for one Kansas grandmother.

Janice Conner of Hutchinson, Kansas, had skydiving on her bucket list, and this year, her kids gifted her that request for Mother's Day.

Although the gift was technically a week late, Conner said she was happy about it.

"We've been discussing my bucket list and this is one thing I've always wanted to do. So for Mother's Day, the kids decided they were going to pay for me to go skydiving," Conner told CBS affiliate KWCH in Wichita.

Martin Myrtle, owner of Air Capital Drop Zone, said it's rare to have octogenarians jump, but that Conner was a few years short of the record at his site, which stands at 84 years old.

"You have to be in relatively decent condition," said Myrtle. "So, someone in their 80s is pretty rare, but it happens every once in a while."

Before taking to the sky, Conner told KWCH she got a little advice from one of her grandsons.

"Don't take your teeth with you," she laughed. "I have a partial plate. One grandson called me and said don't do that because he'd seen a cartoon of this lady flying and she'd lost her teeth."