Frank Haight: No fear of flying for this grandmother

Ninety-year-old Rosebud Denham Gard describes herself as “just an ordinary person.” But she’s more than ordinary when it comes to being adventuresome.

This intrepid woman has no fear when it comes to such high-adventure pleasantries as riding in a helicopter high above Hawaii, gliding peacefully above the California countryside in a brightly colored hot-air balloon and soaring over the Carribean on a parasail towed by a speeding boat.

This lifelong Independence resident has accomplished all these thrilling feats within the past 20 years and more – much more.

But the ultimate sky feat occurred June 23 when 15 family members – representing five generations – gathered at the airport in Lexington, Mo., to watch their “Granny” fulfill a lifelong dream of adding skydiving to her bucket list of things to do.

And she didn’t disappoint her cheering family.

Wanting to skydive for the first time was no last-minute decision for this great-great-grandmother, who is short in stature but tall in brazenness.

As Rosebud reminisced about her high-adventure feats, she recalls her longing to become a skydiver stems from those days decades and decades ago when she and her late husband, Earl Gard, parked on Necessary Road, watching skydivers plummet from the sky over the now-defunct Independence Airport.

Rosebud knew then that someday she wanted to emulate what she had enjoyed watching high above the old airport on R.D. Mize Road.

But when would “someday” become a reality?

Why not on Nov. 25, 2011, her 90th birthday, she reasoned.

“I wanted to do it then, but I was not able to do it on my birthday,” she says, recalling she would be in Texas visiting her son, Raymond, on her birthday. The trip to Texas was Raymond’s 90th birthday present to his mother.

Rosebud’s long-awaited jump would have come sooner than June 23 had Raymond not asked his mother to put off her dive until he returned to his Lake Paradise home for the summer.

After his return on May 24, Rosebud took the bull by the horns. The following day she called her son and requested that he drive her to Lexington so she could sign up for the skydive with the Missouri River Valley Skydivers.

Rosebud was so excited as Raymond drove her to Lexington the following week to sign up.

“I knew I wanted to do this for so long. … It was like I was on Cloud 9 already.”
Afraid? Not Rosebud.

“I never was afraid,” she says, recalling her great-granddaughter, Kaitlyn Jennings, called her from New York and  asked, ‘Granny, aren’t you afraid you will chicken out at the last minute?’”

“Kaitlyn,” she replies, “I’ve paid for this (jump) and I have wanted to do this so long, and I have never once thought of not doing it.”

The jump went off without a hitch. Physically attached to her Tandem Master Instructor Steve Osner, Rosebud sat against his legs as the plane took off under a cloudy sky. Both were wearing goggles and a jumpsuit.

With her eyes shut during the 30-second freefall at 110 miles per hour, Rosebud opened them when the main built-for-two parachute opened and floated earthward – much to her delight.

“It was the most beautiful experience,” she says slowly and softly. “Oh, it was great. … I want to do it again so bad ... perhaps next summer.”

Rosebud, who has had two knee replacements, says her two feet never touched the ground on the soft landing.

“When we landed, (my partner) landed on his feet and then he picked me up a little bit and said, ‘Stand up,’ and I stood up.”

“I am going to do it again,” she keeps repeating. “But the next time I am going to keep my eyes open the whole time.”

Noting she will celebrate her 91st birthday on Nov. 25, Rosebud says she has lost a bit of freedom since she totaled her car on Jan. 5.

“That’s the first wreck I ever had,” she says, explaining her two sons, Raymond and Russell, took her car away and  won’t let her drive again. “But,” she continues, “I never had a wreck (before) and I can’t understand why they won’t let me have a car.”

However, despite the loss of her car, Rosebud says life has dealt her a good hand.

“I feel really blessed. There were six of us – three boys and three girls, and we three girls are still living. I feel blessed that I am in the physical condition I am in,” she says, then adds:

“People don’t believe me when I say I am 90.”

In asking Rosebud what her greatest achievement was, I felt sure Rosebud was going to say something like “skydiving at age 90.” But her response was, “Competing in the national 4-H (Dress Revue) competition in Chicago as a 17-year-old.” And that surprised me.

Rosebud says she fell in love with sewing at an early age.

Working a year after graduating from William Chrisman High School in 1941, Rosemary’s dream was to attend the University of Missouri the next year and major in home economics.

“That was my goal,” she says, “but I got married the next year and then came the war.

Born with a servant’s heart, Rosebud blossomed as a volunteer, serving 35 years as a member of the Laurel Club and nearly 35 years at Hallmark Kaleidoscope. She also worked preparing food in the school her young children attended, as there was no cafeteria.

“I have been serving others up until the last few years,” says Rosebud, who has two sons, six grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren and one great-great-granddaughter.

Rosebud – and, yes, that’s the name on her birth certificate – received a payback from total strangers following her skydive on June 23.

While eating lunch at a local restaurant, this family heard about Rosebud’s skydive and 90th birthday and paid for her meal, as well as for the meals of the three other family members in her party.

“Wasn’t that nice of them,” she says.

So moved by that family’s good deed, Rosemary says she hopes to emulate the family by looking for opportunities to do good deeds for others in the future.