ANNIE OAKLEY - ULTIMATE WESTERN WOMAN by Pam North Unlike other American Western female legends, Annie Oakley was not born in the West, and neither did she settle there. Her only touches with it were her occasional travels there with with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Exhibition. She did, however, have a profound influence on how Americans and Europeans viewed the West, and even on the way Westerners perceived themselves. She was born Phoebe Ann Mosee on August 13, 1860, in Darke County, Ohio. Poverty and misfortune were everyday life for her family, and her father's death in 1866 added to the problems, leaving her mother to support seven children under the age of fifteen years. Annie acquired skills of her own to aid in the family's survival; she learned to trap, and then to shoot small game (in the head, so as not to spoil the meat) to add to their food supplies. During the 1870s she became a market-hunter, selling game to a local shopkeeper who resold it to Cincinnati hotels. Her prowess with firearms eventually led to a shooting match with stage-shooter Frank E. Butler, on a Thanksgiving day sometime in the mid-to-late 1870s. She bested him, much to his surprise, and he invited her to be his guest at one of his upcoming performances. This led to a courtship and a marriage that lasted around 50 years. He acted as husband, companion, teacher, shooting partner, business manager and agent. His stage experience aided him in fashioning her into the star she became; she chose the name Oakley, and toured with Frank. Only five feet tall and 110 pounds, with long hair flowing down her back, she always wore long-skirted dresses, refusing to lose her femininity. In 1885, Annie and Frank signed on with Cody's Wild West, and for sixteen of the next seventeen seasons, toured with the show, primarily in short stands through eastern, central and midwetern America, and longer engagements in Europe. Through the 1880s, 1890s and early 1900s, Annie and Frank built an act and a persona for Annie that had appeal to all in her audiences - young, old, male, female, conservative or liberal. Her expertise was genuine, gained through constant practice and imaginative invention of new tricks to astonish her audiences, and her feats with firearms were always without deception of any kind. She was exactly as she appeared. Her identification with the American West began as early as 1884, when Chief Sitting Bull saw her perform in St. Paul, and promptly adopted her. In that age between the vanishing frontier and the emerging machine age, the Sitting Bull association offered tremendous nostalgia and advertising appeal. Although Sitting Bull returned to his reservation then, he later joined the Wild West troupe for the 1885 season. A small booklet called "Rifle Queen" was published in 1887, and although it ran to the fictional in reporting Annie's life and exploits, it established her even more as a Western heroine. During the 1880s, Cody's friend, Thomas Alva Edison, captured Annie in a film which was distributed to the nickelodeons, further adding to Annie's recognition and fame. She became the first to create the image of a cowgirl, but more importantly, the cowgirl as a lady. The 1880s and 1890s were a time of dramatic change for women and how their abilities were viewed; women were breaking into virtually every professional field, and the female workforce was growing dramatically. While Annie wielded potentially deadly weapons and rode horses with remarkable skill, she also wore feminine skirts, performed her horseback stunts only from a sidesaddle, and embraced a ladylike image with high moral values. Cursing and drinking were not condoned in her presence, and she was always treated with respect. Her personal behavior, reflecting Victorian standards, showed that she could be independent and employed, but domestic as well. Her tent/dressing room was furnished comfortably; she did fancy embroidery in her spare time; she entertained guests with punch, tea, cakes and ices. Women viewed her as a role model, and flocked to see her exhibitions. From the 1880s until her retirement in 1913, Annie triumphed in hundreds of matches, routinely established new records, and opened the match-shooting circuit for women. At the turn of the century, Annie began acting starring roles in stage plays, portraying cowgirl heroines. Her persona was also readily apparent as the inspiration for western female characters in the dime novel series of the era. Annie Oakley left show business in October, 1913. She died in her sleep on November 3, 1926, at the age of 66, probably as a result of the lingering effects from an automobile accident in 1922. Frank died shortly afterward on November 21, 1926. Clearly Annie Oakley played a major role in the world's great love affair with the American West, and although she became a Westerner by association rather than birth, she became a true legend of her own. Resource: By Grit and Grace, edited by Glenda Riley and Richard W. Etulain Photo is at: http://www.ormiston.com/annieoakley/photos.html I liked the 15th picture in the series, and it can be enlarged. Caption: Annie Oakley was the consummate Western legend - daring but a lady.