Two Harbors resident Shirley Martinson’s family agreed to send her skydiving to celebrate her 80th birthday in March 2025, an experience on her bucket list. She ultimately checked off jumping out of a perfectly functioning airplane at 13,000 feet with her grandson, Steve Udenberg, on September 12, 2026, at age 81.
Describing her reaction to the experience, she said, “I will try anything once when I could find something new. I loved this experience and would go again in a second.” She then invited this reporter, who likes always to have both feet on the ground, to try it with her. He said, “No.” Shirley’s husband, Roger, 86, commended the reporter’s good sense, saying, “There’s a smart man.”
Shirley’s daughter, Kris Udenberg, of Two Harbors, who helped organize the birthday gift, tipped us off to this delightful story. “She deserves for people to know she’s crazy,” she said.
Shirley and grandson Steve have a track record of adventure-seeking. She took him parasailing in Mexico after his high school graduation.
Finding a skydiving center in the area that caters to first-time jumpers was not easy. The facility in Superior, WI, has a 70-year age limit. Ultimately, they found Skydive Twin Cities in Baldwin, WI. The only age requirement there is that tandem jumpers be at least 18 years old. No maximum.
According to daughter Kris, at least ten observers from Two Harbors were on hand to witness Shirley and Steve complete Shirley’s bucket-list skydiving goal.
Prone to motion sickness, Shirley was ready for her first parachute jump with the wristbands and patches that keep nausea at bay. “The free fall was fantastic,” she said. “Then when the parachute opened, I tried steering.” That’s when the nausea set in. As their descent slowed from the 120 mph speed of the freefall, she asked the instructor she was fastened to, “Which way do you want me to throw up?” He replied, “Turn to the right.”
Shirley, with the instructor on her back, landed successfully and uneventfully on land in Baldwin, WI. She described it as “A perfect landing.”
Family and friends are very important to Shirley. She and Roger raised a daughter, Kris Udenberg, and son, Dr. Kurt Martinson, in Two Harbors.
When she’s not leaping out of airplanes, Shirley stays grounded in Two Harbors history. She’s an active leader in Friends of the Edna G., a non-profit volunteer organization dedicated to preserving, restoring, and interpreting the historic tugboat Edna G. “We want to keep her name alive,” Shirley said.
Built in 1896 for the Duluth and Iron Range Railroad, the Edna G. was the last coal-fired, steam-powered tugboat operating on the Great Lakes when she was retired in 1981. With over 80 years afloat, docking iron ore carriers, assisting in shipwreck rescues, and serving as a local icon, she was donated to the City of Two Harbors. Plans are underway to bring the historic vessel onto dry land. Among her deep roots in Two Harbors, Shirley’s grandfather actually served for a time on the proud tugboat.
Speaking of deep roots, Shirley’s father, Stanley G. Nelson, established the Voyageur Motel in Two Harbors. In 1960, he built the Voyageur Museum next door and commissioned Pierre, a 20-foot-tall fiberglass voyageur that now stands, proudly refurbished, on Highway 61 at the west end of town. Originally, Pierre’s head rotated, his eyes moved side to side, and an internal audio system let an employee hidden inside the building speak directly to passing tourists. A birchbark canoe and information signage sat at his feet for photo opportunities.
Shirley, her family, and her story of derring-do, jumping out of a perfectly good airplane, are what life on the North Shore is all about. She and the Friends of the Edna G. are hosting the Christmas Tea Parties aboard the tenacious tug the two weekends before Christmas this year.
That tea will be a great chance to meet a special lady who loves meeting people as much as she loves her lifelong hometown.
