Sonora Webster Carver

Sonora died at the age of 99 on September 20, 2003. She lived in Pleasantville, New Jersey at the time of her death.

Sonora's account can be read in her 1961 book, A Girl and Five Brave Horses, and seen in the fictionalized movie version of her life, Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken, starring Gabrielle Anwar. She was disappointed in the way that the movie depicted her life and career. She remarked to Arnette after screening the film that "the only thing true in it was that I rode diving horses, I went blind, and I continued to ride for another 11 years."

In 1931, Sonora was blinded by retinal detachment, due to hitting the water off balance with her eyes open, while diving her horse, Red Lips, on Atlantic City's Steel Pier, the act's permanent home since 1929. After her accident she continued to dive horses until 1942. Arnette left the show in 1935.

Sonora fell in love with and eventually married Doc's son, Albert (Al) Floyd Carver, in October 1928. Al had taken over the show in 1927, after the death of Dr. Carver. Sonora's sister Arnette Webster French followed in her footsteps, becoming a horse diver and joining the show in 1928.

Webster answered an ad placed by William "Doc" Carver in 1923 for a diving girl and soon earned a place in circus history. Her job was to mount a running horse as it reached the top of a forty-foot (sometimes sixty-foot) tower and sail down on its back as it plunged into an 11-foot pool of water directly below. She was a sensation and soon became the lead diving girl for Doc's act as they traveled the country and the first diving girl quit.

Sonora Webster Carver (February 2, 1904  – September 20, 2003), born in Waycross, Georgia, was an American entertainer, most notable as one of the first female horse divers.