Northumberland

At just a day over 100 years old, Eleanor Cunningham jumped from a plane high above Gansevoort Saturday for the third time in her life.

It's another check off her bucket list, said daughter Beverly Plank. Cunningham started skydiving at age 90 and has continued the tradition every five years for her birthday — she said she plans on making her next jump at 105.

"Now that I'm here, I guess I'll have to go," Cunningham said, eliciting laughter from her grandchildren and great children piled on the couch around her. Her pink and white Puma sneakers stuck out from underneath the fleece blanket her children insisted on swaddling her with before takeoff, though she claimed she wasn't cold. Another family member reminded her she would be taking off soon, so go easy on the birthday cake. Cunningham's response was an eye roll and another large bite of frosting.

Much of the woman's life has been spent with her family, Plank said. With five children of her own, as well as 15 grandchildren, 26 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren, the running joke continues to be whether Cunningham will outlive them all — and many said she might.

Though she lives with her granddaughter Karen Simmons in Howes Cave, the birthday girl was driving until the age of 95, when she willingly gave up her license, Plank said. Her doctor signed off on the skydiving expedition, saying her health makes her more than capable of doing what she loves.

At 50, Cunningham learned to ski and somewhere in her 70s, learned to play golf, said Deb Sites, a longtime friend of Cunningham's from her Gettysburg, Pa., home, where she grew up. "She told the man at the liquor store a few years ago that she attributes her long life to nipping and napping — nipping her wine and napping," Sites said smiling.

Cunningham still purchases her favorite Adams County, Pa., wine, "Rebel Red," by the case for friends and her own enjoyment. Sites said she even brought some up for her birthday.

But no wine was needed to get Cunningham into the small plane at Saratoga Skydiving Adventures Saturday afternoon, though a few asked if she needed a drink. In a small plane packed full with four men, including her jump partner, Dean McDonald, Cunningham prepared for her third skydiving trip, her second jump with McDonald.

He said she is his oldest jump partner yet, and he wouldn't have missed her celebratory 100th birthday.

Neither would Bob Rawlins, owner of the skydiving company. Though he joked he's been taking phone calls from Cunningham for weeks before the trip — he said she wanted to make sure everything was in order — he couldn't let cold weather stop her.

"Who am I to deny her this?" Rawlins said, though he visibly relaxed, as did most of her family, upon Cunningham's feet touching ground.

"She said I'm going to either land alive or dead, one way or the other," granddaughter Debbie Rogers said. "She's been talking about this for a long time."

The jump itself went off without a hitch, Cunningham slowly changing from a small black speck in the sky to an orange parachute floating slowly toward the ground.

As fellow jumpers worked to get Cunningham out of her harness and back onto her feet, many of the younger family members gathered close to her, asking if she'd had a good time and be doing it again.

"Yes," she said loudly. She and McDonald will have another date in the air when she turns 105, if she has anything to say about it.

bhorn@timesunion.com • 518-454-5097 • @brittanyhorn