Dottie Hopkins says 90th birthday marks her last last dive

NEWPORT — Dottie Hopkins mused that taking her familiar perch atop the railing of Van Zandt Pier above Newport Harbor was easier a few weeks ago when she was 89.

She speculated that it was a bit more difficult Thursday afternoon because she was celebrating her 90th birthday. Once she steadied her feet, Hopkins made the sign of the cross, thanked her onlookers and jumped into the water.

The dive is an annual ritual for Hopkins that started more than 25 years ago at the request of her grandson, Trevor. Every year on his birthday, June 28, Hopkins' family converges on the pier. She is the first to jump and her family members follow one by one. Before the gathering this June, Hopkins told her family she intended it to be her last dive. Her niece, MaryAnn Peterson pressed Hopkins to do it one more time so she and others could be there. Hopkins, who is spry and flashed a quick wit, was game.

The pier on Thursday was filled with family members, friends and her former students from Rogers High School. “It only took me 90 years to become a celebrity,” Hopkins said as she surveyed her well-wishers. “Better late than never.”

Among the onlookers was one of her former colleagues at Rogers, Elaine Daniels, and her husband, Dave. They read a short piece in The Daily News about her dive this past June. “I thought, ‘We have to see this,’” Elaine said.

Hopkins’ nephew, Ted Truver, tested the waters before she arrived. “It’s pretty chilly,” he reported, “but doable.” Asked if he could imagine diving at Hopkins' age, he said, “Definitely not, if I’m even here at 90.”

Family and friends said they weren’t surprised by Hopkins’ physical feat. She regularly golfs nine holes at Wanumetonomy Golf and Country Club without using a golf cart, lifts weights at the Newport County YMCA and, until recently, skied the slopes of Okemo Mountain in Vermont.

“Making it to 90, being healthy and doing this?” her niece, Joan Hopkins, said incredulously. “How many people dive into the harbor off a pier at any age?”

Hopkins resisted a move to Florida, some of her family said, because she feared she would get old there. Hopkins raised her children in a home on Bayside Avenue near the pier and still lives in Newport.

Some questioned if this really would be the last time that Hopkins makes the leap. If it was, she certainly soaked it all in. Hopkins lingered in the water for a few minutes to welcome each family member who made the plunge.

dgomes@newportri.com