![]() ![]() Inspired by a story perfectly scripted for Hollywood, the Walt Disney Co. Carver wrote her autobiography, A Girl and Five Brave Horses. DeAngelis, 92, died Saturday, 24 hours before Mrs. Carver's sister, Arnette Webster French, and their friend Josephine K. "It is one of Atlantic City's greatest icons," Allen "Boo" Pergament, who has chronicled the history of Atlantic City, said yesterday. The diving-horse act continued on the Steel Pier until 1978. Carver learned Braille and worked as a Dictaphone typist at Touro Infirmary until 1979, when she retired and returned to New Jersey. That year, she retired from horse-diving and the couple moved to New Orleans, where they lived until Al Carver died in 1961. Carver continued to dive, keeping her blindness secret from the public until 1942. Both of her retinas were detached, and she remained blind for the rest of her life.īut Mrs. In August 1931, one of the horses went into a steep nosedive during a performance, sending Mrs. For 11 of the 13 years of her career, she performed the feat blind. ![]() She performed this act two to six times a day.īut Mrs. Carver climbed a 40-foot ladder at the end of the pier, waited for a horse to run up a ramp, jumped on the horse, and plunged into a tank measuring 12 feet deep and 20 feet across. Not content with just having circus acts, Gravatt wanted diving horses and saucy female riders to lure crowds to his pier. ![]() Gravatt invited Carver to bring his show to the recently completed Steel Pier. In 1929, Atlantic City hotel builder and impresario Frank P. The couple married in 1932 - five years after he took over the act following his father's death. She left Waycross, traveled the country with his carnival show, and performed before audiences of thousands.Īlong the way, she fell in love with the boss's son, Al Carver. She joined the carnival act of the traveling sharpshooter William Carver, who was known as "Doc" by his contemporaries, including Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok.ĭoc Carver taught her how handle a horse and how to horse-dive. To the 20-year-old jobless, adventurous woman, the job sounded perfect. Carver saw a way out of "genteel poverty" after reading a newspaper ad for "a girl who could swim and dive and was willing to travel." In other words, a diving-horse rider. One of six children born to working people in rural Waycross, Ga., Mrs. Sonora Webster Carver, 99, the first woman to dive off Atlantic City's Steel Pier while riding a horse - a stunt she continued for 11 years after she was blinded during a performance - died Sunday at Our Lady's Residence in Pleasantville, N.J. Sonora Webster Carver, born in Waycross, Georgia, was an American entertainer, most notable as one of the first female horse divers. ![]()
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