| Annie Oakley |
Annie Oakley born Phoebe Ann Mozee, August 13, 1860. She was the daughter of Quakers, Susan and Jacob Moses, who were from Pennsylvania. A fire burned down their tavern so they moved to a rented farm in Patterson Township, Darke County, Ohio. Her father fought in the War of 1812 and died in 1866 from pneumonia and overexposure in freezingweather. Annie was the fifth of seven children. Her mother remarried, had another child and was widowed a second time. During this time Annie was put in the care of the superintendent of the county poor farm, where she learned to embroider and sew. She was reunited with her family when her mother married a third time. Oakley began hunting at the age of nine to support her siblings and her widowed mother. She soon became known as a marksman. After defeating a sideshow marksman named Frank E. Butler (1850-1926) aka Francis Butler, at a contest in Cincinnati, Ohio, she married him in 1876. They lived in Cincinnati for a time, and it is widely believed that she took her stage name from the city's neighborhood of Oakley, where they resided. She later became Butler's assistant in his travelling show. They joined the Buffalo Bill Wild West show in 1885, and she was advertised as "Little Miss Sure Shot", a nickname given to her by Sitting Bull. Oakley had such good aim that she knocked the ashes off a cigar held by Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. In 1901, she was badly injured in a railway crash, but recovered and resumed her career. Annie continued to set records into her 60's even after suffering a debilitating automobile accident that caused her to wear a steel brace on her right leg. She died on November 3, 1926, of pernicious anemia, at the age of 66. |
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