Annie Oakley - Tall Tale Heroes Tall Tale Heroes More Stormalong Annie Oakley Oakley, Annie, 1860-1926, American theatrical performer, b. Darke co., Ohio. Her original name was Phoebe Anne Oakley Mozee. From childhood on she was a "dead shot" with a rifle. She defeated in contest the noted marksman and vaudeville star Frank E. Butler, who subsequently married her and became her manager and assistant. As a major attraction (1885-1902) of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show she performed remarkable feats of marksmanship. In 1901 she was partially paralyzed in a railroad accident but continued to delight audiences with her brilliant shooting for 20 years. Her life was the basis for Irving Berlin's popular musical Annie Get Your Gun(1946). Source Citation: "Oakley, Annie." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Columbia University Press, 2000. Reproduced in Kids InfoBits. Detroit: Gale, 2013.

Suggested Reading Title: Shooting Star: Annie Oakley, the Legend , written by Debbie Dadey, illustrated by Scott Goto 1997 Description: An exaggerated account of the life and exploits of the sharp-shooting entertainer. An exaggerated account of the life and exploits of the sharp-shooting entertainer. Ages: 9-12 Title: Bull's-Eye: A Photobiography of Annie Oakley , written by Sue Macy, 2001 Description: Presents the facts and the fiction about the American icon who made herself famous for her shooting skills. Ages: 9-12 Reviews: Gr 3-6 –This book is exemplary nonfiction: well documented, lots of period photos with credits, a resource list, and a chronology. Equally important is its engaging and well-crafted account of this famous woman of the West.

Some of the facts of Phoebe Ann Moses Butler's life before she became "AnnieOakley" are less well known: her family was Quaker, but extreme poverty led her to use a gun for hunting; she spent two years as a child laborer for an abusive farmer; and she was a strong advocate for women learning to use firearms, offering to train a women's home-front protection division during World War I. Macy has drawn on family members' stories as well as Oakley's unpublished autobiography in this writing. Bull's-Eye is for a younger audience than Jean Flynn's excellent AnnieOakley (Enslow, 1998) and would be a good replacement for Robert Quackenbush's Who's That Girl with the Gun? (Prentice-Hall, 1988; o.p.).–Nancy Collins-Warner, Neill Public Library, Pullman, WA --Nancy Collins-Warner (Reviewed October 1, 2001) (School Library Journal, vol 47, issue 10, p188) *information from NoveList Plus Title: Who Was Annie Oakley?

by Stephanie Spinner, 2002 Description: Describes the life of the frontier woman and sharpshooter who achieved fame with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show Ages: 9-12 Reviews: Gr 3-5-AnnieOakley was born Phoebe Ann Moses in 1860 in Ohio. Her life story is told here-from her fatherless childhood through her marriage to Frank Butler and glory days traveling with Buffalo Bill's show to her death, 18 daysbefore her husband's, in 1926. "Little Sure Shot," as she was nicknamed by Sitting Bull, truly had a one-of-a-kind life. She raised herself upfrom a poor, abused baby-sitter to a sharpshooting show woman who enchanted Queen Victoria out of her post-Albert funk, no less. However, while her biographyis presented in full here, the prose is rather dry and uninviting. The black-and-white cartoons that pad the book are no better. Although two time lines areappended, there is no index.

Sue Macy's Bull's-Eye (National Geographic, 2001) is a wonderful photobiography of Oakley that will be far more helpfulfor reports and is more enjoyable reading.-Anne Chapman Callaghan, Racine Public Library, WI Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information. -School Library Journal *information from NoveList Plus 1000+ images about Annie Oakley on Pinterest | Wild west show, Oakley sunglasses and Auction Forward In 1883, Wild Bill Cody had attempted to recruit famed chief Sitting Bull to join his Wild West show. Sitting Bull was not interested until he saw a postcard featuring Annie Oakley. The Sioux chief saw her performance in 1884 in St Paul. He called her “Tatanya Cincila” or “Little Sure Shot”.

Oakley claimed that Sitting Bull had adopted her as a daughter See More The 2014 Great Ohioans class chosen The 2014 Great Ohioans class chosen Annie Oakley, Jerri Mock recieve honor Published: January 24, 2014 12:34 PM 1 of 1 Photos | View More Photos Columbus, Ohio – The Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board (CSRAB) and the Capitol Square Foundation today announce the 2014 Great Ohioans. The 2014 honorees were presented by the Capitol Square Foundation and unanimously approved by the 12-member CSRAB. The two honorees were selected from nominations submitted by individuals and organizations throughout Ohio. The 2014 Great Ohioans are: Annie Oakley, superstar sharpshooter and educator, and Jerri Mock, first woman to fly around the world. “This year we honor two individuals who were pioneers in their fields. Both honorees gained international recognition for their extraordinary accomplishments. These two women have inspired, and continue to inspire, future generations of Ohioans with their skill and drive; they have set themselves apart as true global trailblazers,” said CSRAB Executive Director William Carleton.

The Great Ohioan Award commemorates Ohioans who have played a significant role in an event or series of events of lasting significance in World, American or Ohio history. To be selected for the Great Ohioan Award, the nominee must have resided in Ohio for a minimum of five years. In addition, at least 25 years must have passed since the event in which the nominee participated is being commemorated. ANNIE OAKLEY Annie Oakley was born August 13, 1860, in Darke County, Ohio. Her birth name was Phoebe Anne Mozee. Oakley received a limited formal education, but she became an expert markswoman at a young age. She assisted her parents in paying off the mortgage on the family farm by selling wild game that she killed in Cincinnati. By the mid-1870s, Oakley had earned a name for herself thanks to her shooting skills. In 1875, she won a contest against Frank Butler, a marksman who earned a living by performing in circuses. Butler convinced Oakley to travel with him across the country, demonstrating her skills. The two performers eventually married.

In 1885, the couple joined "Buffalo Bill" Cody's Wild West Show. Oakley became known as "Miss Annie Oakley, the Peerless Lady Wing-Shot." In her act, Oakley routinely split a card in two edge-wise with a single shot from thirty paces. She shot cigarettes out of her husband's mouth and, on a tour of Europe, even performed this same act with Crown Prince Wilhelm, who eventually became Kaiser Wilhelm II, the leader of Germany. Oakley also shot dimes thrown into the air. Oakley remained with the Wild West Show until 1901, when she became partially paralyzed in a train accident. She eventually recovered and returned to show business. She died on November 3, 1926. The Broadway musical "Annie Get Your Gun" is a fictitious account of Oakley's life. JERRIE MOCK Geraldine Fredritz Mock was born on November 22, 1925, in Newark, Ohio. Mock, better known as "Jerrie," was the first woman to fly around the world.

On March 9, 1964, Mock took off from Columbus in her plane, the "Spirit of Columbus, The "Spirit of Columbus" was a Cessna 180. Mock's trip around the world took twenty-nine days, eleven hours, and fifty-nine minutes, with the pilot returning to Columbus on April 17, 1964. She had flown 23,103 miles. On this flight, Mock had set the round-the-world speed record for planes smaller than 3,858 pounds. As a result of her flight, President Lyndon Baines Johnson awarded Mock the Federal Aviation Administration's Exceptional Service Decoration. In 1975, Mock's Cessna was donated to the National Air and Space Museum. For her contributions to flight, the Federation Aeronautique Internationale honored Mock with its Louis Bleriot Medal, the organization's highest honor. Mock was the first woman and also the first U.S. citizen to receive the medal. Mock leads an active life beyond flying. She served as producer of Youth Has Its Say, the first television program dedicated to allowing children to voice their opinions.

She authored several magazine articles and a book, and Mock also wrote and directed a radio program, Opera Preludea. Mock resides in Quincy, Florida. Since 2003, 30 other Great Ohioans have been recognized with the award for the special roles they played in history. The Great Ohioans include: 2003 Class: Orville and Wilbur Wright, inventors of powered flight; John Glenn, first American to orbit the earth; and Neil Armstrong, first man to walk on the moon; 2008 Class: Jesse Owens, Olympic track and field star; Thomas Edison, inventor; Harriet Beecher Stowe, author; James Thurber, journalist and author; Colonel Charles Young, military leader; Dr. George Crile, founder of the Cleveland Clinic; 2009 Class: Catherine Nelson Black, health care humanitarian; Salmon P. Chase, Ohio Governor, Secretary of the Treasury and Supreme Court Chief Justice; Paul Laurence Dunbar, poet and author; Charles F. Kettering, inventor; Eddie Rickenbacker, World War I fighter ace; Denton T. “Cy” Young, baseball legend; 2010 Class: James M.

Cox, journalist, member of the United States House of Representatives, Ohio Governor; Florence Ellinwood Allen, first woman Ohio Supreme Court Justice; Bob Feller, baseball legend; and Bill Willis, National Football League hall of famer; 2011 Class: Ulysses S. Grant, Civil War General and U.S. President; William Moore McCulloch, Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, U.S. Congressman and civil rights advocate; William Howard Taft, U.S. President and U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice; and Harriet Taylor Upton, women’s rights advocate and author; 2012 Class: Gordon Battelle, philanthropist and researcher; Dominic Salavtore “Don” Gentile, World War II fighter pilot; Washington Gladden, clergyman and social reformer; Albert Belmont Graham, founder of the 4-H program; Albert Sabin, medical researcher best known for the oral polio vaccine; and William T. Sherman, Civil War general; 2013 Class: Paul Brown, legendary football player and coach; James Garfield, U.S. President and Governor of Ohio; and Granville T. Woods, inventor.

“Through their accomplishment, each Great Ohioan has changed the trajectory of the United State and the world. We hope that every Statehouse visitor is inspired by the narrative of each one of the men and women who we have recognized with this honor,” said Capitol Square Foundation Chairman Charles Moses. Great Ohioan honorees and their achievements are archived in a permanent Great Ohioan exhibit, which is part of the Ohio Statehouse Museum. While countless Ohioans have performed great actions for their community and beyond, only a select few have been named a “Great Ohioan.” This exhibit allows visitors to have a greater understanding of the recipients of the Great Ohioan award and discover how they affected local, national and world history. The exhibit uses videos, photos, facts and web based technology to explore the life and legacy of each Great Ohioan. Opened in 2009, the Ohio Statehouse Museum features high-tech, interactive exhibits that make learning about all three branches of state government immersive. The museum is packed with historical artifacts and images that detail how government works and who has come to serve their fellow citizens. The Museum includes 5,000 square feet of exhibit space on the ground floor of the Ohio Statehouse that enriches the experience of school children and visitors.

The Museum offers exhibits that encourage visitors to participate in the government process by making choices, expressing their opinions, comparing viewpoints and even becoming a part of an exhibit by giving a State of the State address. The museum’s “deep dive” approach to education enables visitors to better relate to the governing process. All citizens, especially teachers and students, are encouraged to participate in the nomination process to select the 2015 class of honorees. A complete explanation of the nomination process and nomination forms can be found online at . To view this press release and others, visit . Rate this article November 3, 1926 Greenville, Ohio Spouse Frank E. Butler Annie Oakley Summary Information: Annie Oakley was the stage name of Phoebe Ann Moses, a sharpshooter whose skill at shooting led her to star in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show and made her a national celebrity. She won numerous medals for her marksmanship, performed for royalty, and remains a legendary figure of the American West.

She was born August 13, 1860, to Jacob and Susan (Wise) Moses, Quakers who had migrated from Pennsylvania to a rented farm in Darke County, Ohio, a rural county on the Indiana border. Called Annie by her sisters, she was the sixth of seven children born to Susan Moses. In 1866, her father died of pneumonia. Her mother, unable to support her children, sent Annie to the live at the Darke County Infirmary—the county poor house—when she was 9 years old. When she was about 10, she agreed to become a servant of sorts—helping with a baby and household chores—for another local farming family. The family was abusive, however; Annie referred to them later only as "the wolves." She stayed with them in near-slavery for about two years before running away, back to the Darke County Infirmary. She returned home to her mother not long after. Her mother had remarried and had another child, but her husband had died, leaving her to fend for herself and her children alone again.

Annie Gets Her First Gun Annie, who had first shot a gun at a very young age before she was sent away, ended up supporting the family by hunting and trapping when she returned. She could shoot quail and pheasants in the head, keeping the edible portions of the birds entirely free of buckshot. She sold the game to locals in Greenville, Ohio, and to hotels and restaurants in the area, and built a reputation as an excellent shot. She claimed to have so been successful that she paid the mortgage on her family’s farm. As a young woman, she met Francis "Frank" Butler while he performed his traveling marksman show in Cincinnati, Ohio. Part of Frank’s act was accepting challenges from local marksmen to matches, with bets being placed on both sides. A local hotel owner arranged a shooting match between Frank and Annie on Thanksgiving Day. Frank was surprised to learn his opponent was a five-foot-tall, 15-year-old girl— who beat him after he missed on his 25th shot. They began a courtship and eventually married.

There is disagreement over the dates of their first meeting and their marriage; they may have wed as early as 1876, but their only known marriage certificate is in Windsor, Canada, and is dated June 20, 1882. Various reasons have been given for the discrepancies, including the possibility that Frank was not yet legally divorced from his first wife when he and Annie wed. Phoebe Becomes Annie Oakley The Butlers began performing together in May 1882 when Frank’s partner became ill. She took the stage name "Annie Oakley," possibly after the Oakley neighborhood in Cincinnati where they lived. Frank immediately recognized that Annie had a bigger draw and began to showcase her as the main act, acting more as a manager than as a fellow performer. In 1884, the Sioux (Lakota) spiritual leader and medicine man Sitting Bull, who had beaten Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn, saw a show that Annie was in in a theater in St. Paul, Minnesota. He asked to see her after the show.

Annie gave him a signed picture of herself ; Sitting Bull gave her moccasins he had worn at Little Bighorn and the nickname "Watanya Cicilla," Little Sure Shot. Annie Oakley Meets Buffalo Bill Also in 1884, Annie and Frank met William "Buffalo Bill" Cody while performing with a circus in New Orleans. Frank and Cody negotiated for a three-day trial with the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show in early 1885—Annie and Frank would go on to perform with the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show for 16 seasons. Cody called Annie "Li’l Miss," an apt nickname for the five-foot-tall markswoman, and had her perform early in the show to help audiences get used to the sound of gunfire. Her charisma and her skill with many firearms endeared audiences to her and to the show. At 90 feet, she could shoot a dime or a cork out of a bottle or snuff out candle flames.

She could also shoot a playing card with the thin edge held facing her multiple times—the theatre business began referring to free tickets, which had holes punched in them, as "Annie Oakleys." During the 1885 season, Cody also hired Sitting Bull to perform with the show, for which the government had allowed the chief to leave the Standing Rock Reservation. Although Sitting Bull only had to ride once around the arena in his role as "Show Indian," he did not take well to performing. Cody often asked Annie to talk to Sitting Bull when he became upset, but her presence and cajoling were ultimately not enough to keep him touring, and he returned to Standing Rock. Annie Goes To London With The Wild West Show In 1887, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show traveled to London as part of the American Exhibition, which coincided with Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. In early May, they gave several special performances for the royal family. During the performance for Queen Victoria on May 11, the queen rose and bowed deeply when the American flag came into the arena—it was the first time a British monarch had saluted the American flag and the members of the show roared their approval.

The show stayed in London until October, giving over 300 performances that helped Annie hone her showmanship. The London newspapers gave her very favorable press for her shooting skills and began to embellish her western background. In May 1888, the Wild West Show returned to the U.S. after stops in Birmingham and Manchester, England. Annie and Frank left the show for reasons that were "too long to tell" that spring and toured with various other shows and independently for the rest of the year. In December, she made her debut as an actress in a play called Deadwood Dick, but the play and the theater company weren’t successful. In the spring of 1889, they rejoined the Wild West Show for a tour of Europe, beginning with the Exposition Universelle in Paris, France, from May to October. They toured southern France, Spain, Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Germany before returning to the States in the spring of 1890. The show returned to Europe for two more tours in 1891 and 1892, including another performance for Queen Victoria in 1892.

Annie Becomes A National Superstar Annie was a celebrity, reportedly earning more than any other employee in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, when the show returned to the U.S. in 1892. Annie and Frank bought a house in Nutley, New Jersey, which they lived in between the tours that typically took them to about 130 towns each season. In 1894, Buffalo Bill, 15 of his Indians, and Annie Oakley were filmed by Thomas Edison in his Black Maria Studio in West Orange, New Jersey. Edison turned the films into nickelodeons—the public could go to Kinetoscope parlors and, for a nickel, see Annie shoot. On October 29, 1901, the show members were traveling north in North Carolina to the final performance of the season in Danville, Virginia. Because of a misunderstanding at the switching station, the second train, the one Annie and Frank were on, ran head-on into a southbound train. Whether because of this accident or because it was just time—the 41-year-old sharpshooter had been touring continuously for nearly 20 years—she retired from Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.

Around this time, her hair had begun to turn white as well, which was an obvious liability for a performer. In retirement, Annie tried her hand at acting again, appearing in a play called The Western Girl in 1902, wearing a wig to conceal her hair. She also began giving shooting lessons at exclusive shooting clubs. Frank became a representative of the Union Metallic Cartridge Company, a position that allowed Annie and Frank to continue their shooting exhibitions while endorsing the company’s products. Annie Oakley Retires In 1910, they attended a Wild West show known as "The Two Bills Show" at Madison Square Garden—Cody had merged his show with Pawnee Bill’s Wild West Show. Cody asked Annie to join his show, but Annie refused, although she did tour some with another show until 1913, when she retired for good. She and Frank remained good friends with Buffalo Bill. When Bill died on January 10, 1917, she wrote a glowing eulogy of the old showman. In 1912, Frank and Annie had began building a house in Cambridge, Maryland, which is on Maryland’s eastern shore.

The roof of the house was designed so that Annie could step out onto it and shoot game off the Choptank River. They spent the rest of their lives in that house, spending some of their time at resorts in North Carolina and Florida. Hunting and shooting remained important parts in their lives. In 1922, Annie performed at a benefit show on Long Island and was rumored to be making a comeback, but she did not—in November, at the age of 62, she was in a car accident in Florida and fractured her hip and ankle. The brace she had to wear may have kept her from performing again, but it did not keep her from hunting and shooting. Over the next four years, her health began to decline, and she and Frank returned to her roots in Ohio. On November 3, 1926, she died of pernicious anemia at the age of 66. Frank mourned so deeply, he stopped eating and died 18 days later on November 21. They are buried at Brock Cemetery near Greenville, Ohio. Articles Featuring Annie Oakley From History Net Magazines Featured Article Annie Oakley She was an Ohio-born lady who could shoot like the dickens.

She was the first white woman hired by a Wild West outfit to fill a traditionally male role. She was, hands down, the finest woman sharpshooting entertainer of all time. And, at one time, she may have been the most famous woman in the American West or the American East. She was, of course, Annie Oakley — her name nearly as well recognized to this day as that of the bigger-than-life figure who hired her, Buffalo Bill. Annie, born Phoebe Ann Moses in Ohio’s Darke County on August 13, 1860, got her gun at an early age but didn’t shoot her way to everlasting fame until after William ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody put her on the payroll in 1885. In the process, the little woman (5 feet tall, about 110 pounds) gave Cody’s Wild West a shot in the arm. As a star with the stature, ability and uniqueness of Buffalo Bill himself, Annie Oakley had a platform to promote her egalitarian views about women. She believed that women needed to learn to be proficient with firearms to defend themselves and that they could even help fight for their country.

During World War I, she offered to recruit and train a regiment of women sharpshooters. If nothing else, Annie Oakley helped expand the career options of American women. Annie rose to stardom from humble roots. In the mid-1860s her father, Jacob, died, and her mother, Susan, had a devil of a time trying to make ends meet with seven children age 15 or younger on her hands. Annie tried to help by hunting and trapping in the Darke County woods. By age 10, Annie had been sent off to live at the county poor farm, known as the Infirmary, and during her early teens she alternated between living there and with her mother and stepfather. Her life took a turn for the better when she met Irishman Frank (‘Jimmie’) Butler of the Butler and Baughman shooting act. According to legend, Butler was trying to drum up business in 1875 by accepting challenges from local marksmen, and on Thanksgiving Day in Greenville, Ohio, he took on young Annie Moses in a shooting match. ‘I almost dropped dead when a slim girl in a short dress stepped out to the mark with me,’ Frank Butler later said.

‘I was a beaten man the moment she appeared.’ Frank lost, 23 to 21. Later, whenever he said that he had purposely thrown the match, Annie would just flutter her eyes and smile. In any case, Frank was impressed enough by Annie to invite her to see his act in Cincinnati. She accepted. As part of his act, Butler and his big white French poodle, George, performed a William Tell bit. As usual, Frank shot the apple off George’s head and George retrieved the fruit, but the dog then brought it to Annie instead of to the shooter. A courtship ensued — between Annie and Frank, that is — and the couple was married within the year…or so the legend has it. Shirl Kasper, author of the 1992 biography Annie Oakley, points out that the shooting match couldn’t have occurred in 1875, because Frank Butler’s shooting career probably didn’t even start until 1876. There are no contemporary newspaper accounts of the match. More likely, it occurred in 1881, which is what Butler said several times much later. When the couple actually wed is also uncertain.

They told everyone that they were married about a year after they met, and their only known marriage certificate says they tied the knot on June 20, 1882, in Windsor, Canada, when Annie was 21. Annie joined Frank’s stage act, according to her own account, only after Frank’s shooting partner, John Graham, became ill in May 1882. She filled in admirably and became an instant hit. She chose ‘Oakley’ as her stage name for some unknown reason and began to tour with Frank. To the experienced showman’s credit, he immediately realized that his wife was a star. He put his own career on a backburner so that he could manage her career, saying, ‘She outclassed me.’ In those early days of her stage career, Annie Oakley played with Frank Butler at small theaters, skating rinks and circuses. While working for the Sells Brothers Circus in New Orleans in 1884, they met Buffalo Bill Cody, but he didn’t hire her until after she and her manager-husband had come to Louisville, Ky., early in 1885 for a three-day tryout.

After an agreement was struck, Buffalo Bill brought her to the mess tent to introduce her to the members of his Wild West, which had been inaugurated in 1883. ‘This little missie here is Miss Annie Oakley,’ Buffalo Bill said. ‘She is to be the only white woman with our exhibition. And I want you boys to welcome and protect her.’ They didn’t need to — ‘Li’l Missie,’ as Cody usually called her, had pretty much fended for herself from childhood. Annie Oakley and Frank Butler toured with the Wild West for some 16 seasons, and the only contract they had with Cody was verbal. Annie said that Cody, whom she called ‘the Colonel,’ was the kindest-hearted, most loyal man she had ever met, and also the softest touch. She noted that Cody kept a big pitcher of lemonade by his tent so that he could serve refreshments to visiting youngsters. The Oakley act was spectacular. Cody generally used Li’l Missie early in his entertainment extravaganza so that she could warm the audience up to the sound of gunfire.

Dexter Fellows, a sometimes press agent for the Wild West, wrote in his autobiographical book This Way to the Big Show that Annie ‘was a consummate actress, with a personality that made itself felt as soon as she entered the arena.’ During her entrance, Annie waved and blew kisses to the audience. She was an ambidextrous shot who fired rapidly and with unerring accuracy. On the rare occasions when she missed a shot, she immediately fired again. On occasion, she intentionally missed and then pretended to become petulant, stamping her feet in frustration and sometimes throwing her hat down and walking around it to change her luck. Then when she did hit the mark, the audience would roar louder than ever. Frank Butler also got into the act, releasing clay pigeons for his wife. She would jump over her gun table and shoot the clay bird before it hit the ground. Often she shot cigarettes out of her husband’s mouth, and once she even shot a cigarette out of Kaiser Wilhelm II’s mouth. Charlatan shooters preferred to shoot ashes from cigars (with the help of a wire embedded in the cigar and twisted by the assistant’s tongue at the proper moment), so Annie insisted on shooting only whole cigarettes.

Her act often included hitting targets while riding a bicycle with no hands. Although she could ride a horse in fine style, she left the shooting of glass balls from horseback to Buffalo Bill. Annie concluded her act with a funny jig and would kick up her heels just before she left the arena. Once when a newspaper in England wondered how fast and accurate she was, she gave a special demonstration. Frank stood on a chair facing his wife’s back. At Annie’s command, he dropped a tin plate. Annie turned, fired and hit it square, all within about half a second. Annie Oakley had a theatrical flair and the quickness and agility of an athlete. But none of it would have meant too much had she not been such a top hand with all kinds of firearms. She practiced constantly and did not rely on trickery; she was no sham shooting star. Among her favorite shotguns were a Lancaster and a Francotte, her favorite rifles included a Winchester and a Marlin, and she used Colts and Smith & Wesson handguns equally well.

‘Guns, rifles and pistols are of many styles,’ she once said, ‘and to declare that any one make is superior to all others would show a very narrow mind and limited knowledge of firearms….Nobody should trust their lives behind a cheap gun.’ The famous Sioux (Lakota) spiritual leader and medicine man Sitting Bull toured with the Wild West during the 1885 season. Annie had actually met him the previous year in a St. Paul, Minn., theater, when Sitting Bull, then a resident of the Standing Rock Reservation in Dakota Territory, watched her fire a rifle to snuff out a burning candle. Apparently, Sitting Bull was so impressed that afterward he asked to see the little white woman. Annie then gave Sitting Bull a picture of herself, while he gave her moccasins he had worn at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, as well as the nickname Watanya Cicilla (‘Little Sure Shot’). They were happily reunited the next year as employees of Cody’s Wild West. Whenever Sitting Bull got peevish that season, Cody would send for Little Sure Shot, who would talk to the Lakota leader for a while and then do her jig before leaving his quarters.

That inevitably would make Sitting Bull laugh and would lift his spirits. But her presence was not enough to make him want to continue with the show another season. In the spring of 1886, while the Wild West performed in Washington, D.C., en route to an extended summer stay at Erastina, on Staten Island, an insect lodged itself deep inside Annie Oakley’s ear. By June, she had an ear infection, but, against doctor’s orders, she still rode in the 17-mile opening-day parade in New York City. Near the end of it, she collapsed, and doctors determined that the area behind her eardrum needed to be lanced to drain its poison. The bedridden Li’l Missie missed four performances at Erastina (probably the only four she missed during her show career) before she hobbled into the arena on the fifth day to shoot again. She had plenty of grit for sure, but part of Annie Oakley’s motivation for getting back in action was the fact that Cody had hired a younger female shooter, Lillian Smith, for the 1886 season. At the time, Annie may have been concerned about her job security.

But there was room for both of them, and the Wild West continued to be a big hit when it moved into Madison Square Garden that winter. In 1887, the two women sharpshooters and the rest of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West sailed to London as part of the U.S. delegation to Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. That May 5, Prince Albert Edward delighted in a special performance by the company and afterward wanted to meet the cast members. Annie Oakley had heard that women would flirt with the prince in front of his wife. When the prince was introduced to Annie and extended his hand, Annie passed it by and shook the princess’ hand first. She told the prince, ‘You’ll have to forgive me, I’m an American, and in America, women come first.’ Library of Congress Portrait of Annie Oakley On May 11, it was Queen Victoria’s turn to have a command performance. It was held at the exhibition grounds after her courtiers convinced her that they couldn’t fit Cody’s outfit into Windsor Castle. When the American flag entered the arena, Queen Victoria stood up and bowed deeply, and Cody’s company roared its approval.

For the first time in history, an English monarch had saluted the Star-Spangled Banner. After Lillian Smith and Annie Oakley had curtsied and walked up to her, the queen told Annie, ‘You are a very clever little girl.’ L’il Missie had become an international star. At least one newspaper said that her marksmanship was better than that of Buffalo Bill. Annie Oakley’s rising fame may have gone to her head, or to the head of her husband, and a rift developed between them and Cody. The couple left the Wild West. Annie did not explain the break from Cody, but she did say that the reasons she left were ‘too long to tell.’ She and Frank toured with vaudeville impresario Tony Pastor’s show in the spring of 1888. That summer, they hooked up with struggling Pawnee Bill (real name Gordon W. Lillie), a genuine frontiersman who had turned to showmanship, just like Buffalo Bill. Even though Pawnee Bill’s wife, May Lillie, was a sharpshooter with Pawnee Bill’s Wild West, Annie Oakley received top billing.

Annie left the new show after a month to rejoin Pastor on a fall tour, and Pawnee Bill went broke less than three months later. While Annie was touring with Pastor, Frank Butler also arranged frequent shooting matches and exhibitions for his wife. In one match for $50 she broke all 50 clay birds, and in another, featuring 50 live pigeons, she defeated Miles Johnson, champion of New Jersey. On Christmas Eve 1888, Annie Oakley made her debut as an actress in the Western melodrama Deadwood Dick. The play was not a success, and by early February 1889 the theater company had folded. One of the Deadwood Dick managers, though, was John Burke (who was a press agent for Buffalo Bill’s Wild West), and he was probably the one who convinced Frank Butler and Annie Oakley to rejoin Buffalo Bill for a spring run in Paris. That same year, Lillian Smith left the show, and Annie had no competition from any other female sharpshooter in France. At first, the French apparently thought Buffalo Bill’s whole spectacle, including the shooting, was a fake, but when they saw Annie Oakley perform, they became convinced that she was the real thing.

Nate Salsbury, Cody’s business partner, wrote that Annie Oakley saved the show. According to the scrapbooks at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyo., the French, like the rest of the world, idolized Little Sure Shot. The French papers also played up Cody’s reputation as a womanizer. The Paris show ran until the fall of 1889, and then the Wild West ventured on an extended European tour. The English and Italians were most impressed by the horseback riding, but the Germans, especially Prussian military men, took a greater interest in the show’s logistics. The Germans were amazed by the Wild West’s efficient rail movement and the fact that Cody fed his crew three hot meals a day regardless of travel. After World War I started, Annie Oakley heard a rumor that the Germans modeled the movement of the German regiment after the movement of Buffalo Bill’s large company. When reporters reminded Li’l Missie that she had shot a cigarette out of the mouth of the kaiser (Wilhelm II) during the 1890-91 tour, she remarked that she wished that she had missed that particular shot.

In Strassburg, Germany, in 1890, Cody sneaked into Annie Oakley’s tent and wrote in her autograph book: ‘To the loveliest and truest little woman, both in heart and aim, in all the world. Sworn by and before myself. W.F. Cody, Buffalo Bill.’ When Annie Oakley returned to the United States in October 1892, she was a celebrity who reportedly made more money than any other of Cody’s Wild West employees. In the fall of 1894, Buffalo Bill Cody, Annie Oakley and a handful of Indians performed in front of Thomas Edison’s moving-picture machine at the inventor’s laboratory near Orange Mountain in New Jersey. Edison was delighted that his machine could reproduce gun smoke and the shattering of glass balls. The public could go to kinetoscope parlors and, for a nickel, view these early Edison films in peep-show machines. Now, people didn’t have to see Annie Oakley live to know her. She had become the first ‘cowgirl’ in motion pictures. Meanwhile the show went on, and it became more of a road show than ever.

Buffalo Bill’s Wild West played in more than 130 towns in both 1895 and 1896. In 1897, the Wild West played in Canada for the first time since Sitting Bull was a headliner in 1885. Annie admitted in 1899 that she had begun to at least think about retirement. The railroad travel was endless, and it had its dangers. Train accidents were not uncommon. One notable wreck occurred at 3 a.m. on October 29, 1901, near Lindwood, N.C., while the company was headed to Danville, Va., for its last performance of the season. When the first section passed the switching station, the switcher thought that it was the whole outfit, so he threw the switch. The second section ran into an oncoming train. The wooden cars became so many piles of kindling as people and animals cried out in pain and steam hissed. Legend says that Annie Oakley, now 41, was found pinned beneath the rubble and it took several hours before she could be extracted.

As Li’l Missie was carried by stretcher past some wounded horses that had to be shot, she supposedly remarked that she felt sorry for them. Just 17 hours after the wreck, according to legend, her brown hair turned totally white because of the horror of the accident. Biographer Shirl Kasper, however, argues that Annie was not badly hurt in the wreck (the Charlotte Observer reported that nobody from the Wild West was injured) and that while Annie’s hair did turn white rather fast, it wasn’t because of the train wreck. Two newspaper articles in Annie’s scrapbooks at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center say that her hair turned white after she sat too long in a hot bath at a health resort later that year. In any case, says Kasper, it was her white hair, not any bodily injuries, that convinced Annie Oakley to immediately leave Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. After her retirement from the Wild West, Annie Oakley tried her hand at acting again, appearing as the lead in a play called The Western Girl, which opened in New Jersey in November 1902. She looked much as she had while shooting in the Wild West, except now she wore a brown wig to hide her white hair.

She also would teach shooting at exclusive clubs. Meanwhile, her husband worked for the Union Metallic Cartridge Company, promoting its products to the growing number of trapshooters. In the spring of 1910, Frank and Annie attended a Wild West show at Madison Square Garden known as the ‘Two Bills Show,’ because Buffalo Bill’s outfit had merged with Pawnee Bill’s outfit. Cody apparently asked Annie to rejoin the show, but she and Frank turned the old showman down. Instead, the following year, they joined up with Vernon C. Seavers’ Young Buffalo Wild West, and Little Sure Shot continued to shoot for that outfit until retiring for good in 1913. Annie and Frank continued to be friends with Cody, though, and when Buffalo Bill died on January 10, 1917, she wrote a glowing eulogy. After giving her last performance with Young Buffalo Wild West on October 4, 1913, Annie and Frank retired to a new home in Cambridge, Md., and also spent a lot of their time at resorts in Pinehurst, N.C., and Leesburg, Fla. Hunting and shooting remained a big part of their lives. They had no children.

In the summer of 1922, when she was about to turn 62, Annie Oakley performed at a benefit show on Long Island (a clip of her performance that day can be seen at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center). The New York Herald hinted that she might be making a comeback in show biz and could appear in the movies soon. It never happened. That November, she fractured her hip and an ankle in a car accident in Florida. The steel leg brace she was forced to wear did not, however, keep her from resuming her shooting and hunting. Annie Oakley was back home in Darke County, Ohio, when she died on November 3, 1926. She had never fully recovered from the car accident. The doctor wrote ‘pernicious anemia’ as her cause of death. Frank Butler reportedly stopped eating or caring. Less than three weeks later, on November 21, he seemed to fulfill his wish by joining his beloved wife in death. Annie Oakley had not been born in the West, and she had not lived there.

But for many years she had certainly looked like a cowgirl, and she had ridden a horse and shot better than most any Westerner, of either sex, while performing in Wild West shows. To call her, then, a ‘Western legend’ does not miss the mark…even if she was too good, and too good a shot, to shoot anyone. This article was written by Eric V. Sorg and originally appeared in the February 2001 issue of Wild West. 1000+ images about Annie Oakley on Pinterest | Long rifle, Wild west show and Oakley sunglasses Forward Annie Oakley had such good aim that, at his request, she knocked the ashes off a cigarette held by German Kaiser Wilhelm II. There was a widely-repeated quip related to the event, "Some uncharitable people later ventured that if Annie had shot Wilhelm and not his cigarette, she could have prevented World War I" After the outbreak of World War I, however, Oakley did send a letter to the Kaiser, requesting a second shot. The Kaiser did not respond.

See More Oakley and Mock Named Great Ohioans for 2014 - Marion Online Marion Online You are here: Home / News / Oakley and Mock Named Great Ohioans for 2014 Oakley and Mock Named Great Ohioans for 2014 February 6, 2014 by Marion Online News The Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board (CSRAB) and the Capitol Square Foundation recently announced the 2014 Great Ohioans. The 2014 honorees were presented by the Capitol Square Foundation and unanimously approved by the twelve-member CSRAB. The two honorees were selected from nominations submitted by individuals and organizations throughout Ohio. The 2014 Great Ohioans are: Annie Oakley, superstar sharpshooter and educator, and Jerri Mock, first woman to fly around the world. “This year we honor two individuals who were pioneers in their fields. Both honorees gained international recognition for their extraordinary accomplishments. These two women have inspired, and continue to inspire, future generations of Ohioans with their skill and drive; they have set themselves apart as true global trailblazers,” said CSRAB Executive Director William Carleton.

The Great Ohioan Award commemorates Ohioans who have played a significant role in an event or series of events of lasting significance in World, American or Ohio history. To be selected for the Great Ohioan Award, the nominee must have resided in Ohio for a minimum of five years. In addition, at least 25 years must have passed since the event in which the nominee participated is being commemorated. ANNIE OAKLEY Annie Oakley was born August 13, 1860, in Darke County, Ohio. Her birth name was Phoebe Anne Mozee. Oakley received a limited formal education, but she became an expert markswoman at a young age. She assisted her parents in paying off the mortgage on the family farm by selling wild game that she killed in Cincinnati. By the mid-1870s, Oakley had earned a name for herself thanks to her shooting skills. In 1875, she won a contest against Frank Butler, a marksman who earned a living by performing in circuses. Butler convinced Oakley to travel with him across the country, demonstrating her skills. The two performers eventually married.

In 1885, the couple joined “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s Wild West Show. Oakley became known as “Miss Annie Oakley, the Peerless Lady Wing-Shot.” In her act, Oakley routinely split a card in two edge-wise with a single shot from thirty paces. She shot cigarettes out of her husband’s mouth and, on a tour of Europe, even performed this same act with Crown Prince Wilhelm, who eventually became Kaiser Wilhelm II, the leader of Germany. Oakley also shot dimes thrown into the air. Oakley remained with the Wild West Show until 1901, when she became partially paralyzed in a train accident. She eventually recovered and returned to show business. She died on November 3, 1926. The Broadway musical “Annie Get Your Gun” is a fictitious account of Oakley’s life. JERRIE MOCK Geraldine Fredritz Mock was born on November 22, 1925, in Newark, Ohio. Mock, better known as “Jerrie,” was the first woman to fly around the world.

On March 9, 1964, Mock took off from Columbus in her plane, the “Spirit of Columbus, The “Spirit of Columbus” was a Cessna 180. Mock’s trip around the world took twenty-nine days, eleven hours, and fifty-nine minutes, with the pilot returning to Columbus on April 17, 1964. She had flown 23,103 miles. On this flight, Mock had set the round-the-world speed record for planes smaller than 3,858 pounds. As a result of her flight, President Lyndon Baines Johnson awarded Mock the Federal Aviation Administration’s Exceptional Service Decoration. In 1975, Mock’s Cessna was donated to the National Air and Space Museum. For her contributions to flight, the Federation Aeronautique Internationale honored Mock with its Louis Bleriot Medal, the organization’s highest honor. Mock was the first woman and also the first U.S. citizen to receive the medal. Mock leads an active life beyond flying. She served as producer of Youth Has Its Say, the first television program dedicated to allowing children to voice their opinions.

She authored several magazine articles and a book, and Mock also wrote and directed a radio program, Opera Preludea. Mock resides in Quincy, Florida. Since 2003, 30 other Great Ohioans have been recognized with the award for the special roles they played in history. “Through their accomplishment, each Great Ohioan has changed the trajectory of the United State and the world. We hope that every Statehouse visitor is inspired by the narrative of each one of the men and women who we have recognized with this honor,” said Capitol Square Foundation Chairman Charles Moses. Great Ohioan honorees and their achievements are archived in a permanent Great Ohioan exhibit, which is part of the Ohio Statehouse Museum. While countless Ohioans have performed great actions for their community and beyond, only a select few have been named a “Great Ohioan.” This exhibit allows visitors to have a greater understanding of the recipients of the Great Ohioan award and discover how they affected local, national and world history. The exhibit uses videos, photos, facts and web based technology to explore the life and legacy of each Great Ohioan.

Opened in 2009, the Ohio Statehouse Museum features high-tech, interactive exhibits that make learning about all three branches of state government immersive. The museum is packed with historical artifacts and images that detail how government works and who has come to serve their fellow citizens. The Museum includes 5,000 square feet of exhibit space on the ground floor of the Ohio Statehouse that enriches the experience of school children and visitors. The Museum offers exhibits that encourage visitors to participate in the government process by making choices, expressing their opinions, comparing viewpoints and even becoming a part of an exhibit by giving a State of the State address. The museum’s “deep dive” approach to education enables visitors to better relate to the governing process. All citizens, especially teachers and students, are encouraged to participate in the nomination process to select the 2015 class of honorees. A complete explanation of the nomination process and nomination forms can be found online at . Story filed under: History , State of Ohio About Marion Online News Marion Online is owned and operated by the (somewhat) fine people at Neighborhood Image, a local website design and hosting company. We know, a locally owned media company, it's crazy.

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Question: Markswoman and entertainer Phoebe Anne Mozee (or Moses) was better known by what name?
Answer: Annie Oakley