Debbi grew up in the Arkansas delta town of West Helena and comes from a big family of hard-working farmers. She found her calling in life when she began to sell real estate after moving to the Greers Ferry Lake area in 2000. Her belief in home ownership even extends beyond Greers Ferry. She has traveled with her church to Haiti and Guatemala to help build houses and churches, and finds great reward in handing a key over to a family, thankful to have a warm, dry place to live.

In 2014, at 55, Debbi completed her first dive and became a licensed skydiver at 56. Her love for skydiving began when her daughter, Rachel, showed her a video of a “wingsuit base jump.”

Debbi’s daring nature led her to dive into the adrenaline-inducing activity. With hard training and a strong commitment, she has earned her A & B licenses in two years and has almost completed her requirements for a coveted C license.

Debbi has completed 1,300 jumps and intends to complete even more! She serves as a true inspiration that age should not hold you back from exploring things outside of your comfort zone. Debbi enjoys hiking and backpacking – and her dream is to live in the Ozark Mountains some day.

What do you do, or did you do, for work? 
I owned a real estate business for years and had 6-8 agents working for me. Until several years ago, I was working 14 hours/day, 6 days/week.

Recently, I downsized and now I just work from home. I’m still busy working with previous clients and referrals from those clients and friends. But I’m not carrying that heavy workload I had for so long. It’s the perfect balance of work and life.

What do you do when you don’t know what to do?
I do an exhaustive search online, go down a few rabbit holes (actually a lot), write down pros and cons, tell myself I’ll make a decision the next day, and sleep on it. Then I put it off until I’m forced to make a decision, and go through the whole process again. Nothing is ever a simple, quick decision for me. 

What would you do if you had the whole day for yourself?
No question – I would jump out of an airplane all day. If it was just my day to plan the jumps, I would do a lot of fun jumps like a wingsuit rodeo, a potato head jump, a tutu jump, a lipstick jump, and I would definitely do some free-flying – anything that is creative, fun and unusual.

Of course, to do those types of jumps, you have to do a lot of planning, invite only experienced jumpers to join you, and make sure safety is your #1 concern!

Free-spirited, free-jumping Debbi!

What do you love most about being a woman?
The flexibility and freedom to be whatever and whoever I want. I might be riding my ATV and hiking through creeks during the day and then dress up for dinner that night. 

What is the one piece of clothing you cannot live without?
My base layers and hiking boots. Base layers have enabled me to enjoy the entire year outside instead of staying indoors as soon as it turns 60 degrees. And I wear my hiking boots every day unless I’m jumping because then I’m prepared for whatever the day might bring. 

To meet Debbi and more #FearlessWomen, RSVP TO JOIN US for our first Alembika Zoom Café of the year! We’ll highlight our Fearless Campaign and get an exciting first look at the new SS23 Collections. We can’t wait to see you!

Find Debbi on Social Media here: https://www.instagram.com/debbibrawley/ and read an article about her in The Wall Street Journal here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/shes-59-and-fit-to-jump-from-an-airplane-1486209601

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2 Comments

  1. What marvelous women. I particularly enjoyed reading about Carolyn Fineran who “curates” her days. She is beautiful, fiesty and smart.
    It’s a pleasure to have #AlembikaWomen a place to meet such interesting people. Thank you for this site.

  2. […] following—as well as a growing variety of colors, washes, prints and finishes! If you saw the #ALEMBIKAWOMEN STORY about Debbi, a daring skydiver featured in Spring-Summer’s fearless theme, you know these […]

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