Sonora Carver enthralled a bygone generation by diving from a 40ft high ramp into a pond of water - on horseback.

Even after losing her sight when a stunt went wrong, she carried on with gutsy determination, thrilling huge crowds around the world.

But, despite writing an autobiography and having the film Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken made about her life, Sonora lives all but forgotten.

Following years of detective work a North-East expert in popular culture is preparing to travel to Atlantic City, in the US, to meet one of the last living legends.

A lecturer in fine arts at Northumbria University, George Pattison hopes to lift the 97-year-old from obscurity and ensure her place in popular culture history.

He said: "I'm very excited and don't know quite what to expect. It's hard to imagine this blind old lady, sitting in a nursing home with such a story that needs telling and remembering."

Mr Pattison, of Stanley, County Durham, discovered her while researching funfairs of the 1930s in Blackpool and the Steel Pier, Atlantic City.

Born in 1905, Sonora left home at the age of 19 to join Dr W F Carver's High Diving Horse Act.

A contemporary of Buffalo Bill, Carver evolved his act from a stunt in which he rode over a bridge which gave way under his horse. As the animal fell into the water below, he would hang on to an upright.

Mr Pattison said: "The horses loved doing it. The act travelled from town to town, where a ramp 40ft high was built and a hole 40ft by 20ft and 11ft deep dug.

"The horse galloped up a ramp and Sonora jumped on."

Mr Pattison, who has been granted an audience after corresponding with Sonora and sending her gifts, said: "Her life is a testimony to human resilience and she serves as a lesson to the younger generation - not to be afraid to be different.

"I hope to record her memories for posterity."