Annie Got Her Gun, All Right

• Kathryn Mckay
• On 6:02 pm EST, Wednesday November 4, 2009

As a sportswoman in a man's field, Annie Oakley was a groundbreaking athlete comparable to tennis's Billie Jean King and soccer's Mia Hamm.

As an entertainer, Oakley was more renowned than the actresses who would portray her in the movies, on TV and on stage.

Her timeless story attracted Barbara Stanwyck in the 1930s, Ethel Merman in the 1940s, Bernadette Peters in the 1990s and Reba McEntire in the 2000s.

The woman who was an international sensation as a sharpshooter and performer in Wild West shows had no formal training or education. She wasn't even a Westerner.

But she had talent, timing and tenacity.

Born Phoebe Moses in Darke County, Ohio, Oakley (1860-1926) was the fifth of seven surviving children born to farmers.

After Phoebe's father died, her mother was so destitute that she sent the 10-year-old girl to work for the county's poor farm, which sent her to a local farmer and his wife.

That family turned out to be so abusive, Oakley would call its members "the wolves."

"Suddenly the 'She-Wolf' struck me across the ears, threw me out into the deep snow and locked the door," Oakley wrote. "I had no shoes on. I was slowly freezing to death. So I got down on my knees, looked toward God's clear sky and tried to pray. But my lips were frozen stiff and there was no sound."

Oakley escaped from that pack and returned to the poor farm. There she learned to sew, a skill she would use the rest of her life as she made her own costumes.

A Teen On Target

When she was 15, Oakley returned to her mother and began shooting animals with her father's rifle.

The girl got game.

By selling the wildfowl she shot to the local general store, she earned enough to pay off the $200 mortgage on her mom's home.

When word spread that marksman Frank Butler was in the area boasting he could outshoot anyone, locals urged Oakley to take a shot.

Oakley was hardly Butler's usual competition. She was female, 15 and only a little over 5 feet tall.

But she took him on.

Each took turns shooting pigeons. One by one, the birds fell.

Then Butler missed the 25th bird. Oakley didn't.

She got more than she aimed for -- not only winning the match, but also the man.

Oakley and Butler were married in 1876 in a union that would last more than 50 years.

For six years, Oakley did what women of her time did: She supported her husband in his career.

Then in 1882, just before a show in Springfield, Ohio, his partner grew ill and couldn't perform. In a move that would prove brilliant, Butler put Oakley on stage with him.

The woman who was Mrs. Frank Butler adopted the stage name Annie Oakley. The couple hit the road, playing with vaudeville acts and circuses.

Although she was a shooting star, Oakley was careful to protect her image as a lady.

"She was very concerned that she was not taken as a loose woman, as many female performers were thought to be one step up from prostitution," Riva Freifeld, producer-director of the PBS documentary "Annie Oakley," told IBD.

Historian Paul Fees said: "She was always very careful to keep her arms and legs covered even though she wore skirts. At the same time, she projected a sensuality. She was athletic, shapely and she wore costumes that were form-fitting and flattering."

As the couple traveled, Butler gradually bowed out to primarily serve as Oakley's manager.

"Butler realized she was the greater talent," Freifeld said. "He had no problem with that."

In 1884, the famous Sioux warrior Chief Sitting Bull was in the audience as Oakley shot out the wick of a burning candle. He offered her $65 ($1,500 in today's dollars) for a portrait of the two of them together.

She accepted. The two hit it off so well, he called her Watanya Cecilla, which means Little Sure Shot.

"She befriended an American Indian whose name was synonymous with danger," said Joy Kasson, chairwoman of the Department of American Studies at the University of North Carolina. "At a time when there were negative images of American Indians, she and Sitting Bull respected one another."

And her nickname fit.

"Everything you read about her shooting ability is absolutely true," said Lynn Houze, curatorial assistant at the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody, Wyo. "She was phenomenal."

In her shows, Oakley shot live birds, fake birds, balls filled with feathers and balls filled with colored powder, eggs and coins.

She shot the heart in the middle of a playing card, an apple on her dog's head, and a cigar out of a man's mouth.

She shot right-handed, left-handed and both-handed. She hit moving targets as she moved. She shot backward looking through a mirror.

Oakley not only wowed audiences with her shooting ability, but also with her personality.

She waved. She blew kisses to the crowd. She kicked up her heels before departing behind the curtain.

After touring with vaudeville shows and a circus, Oakley and Butler aimed for more. They wanted to work with Buffalo Bill Cody on his Wild West Show.

Cody turned them down, saying he didn't need another sharpshooter. Three months later, in 1885, Cody's sharpshooter lost his equipment in the Mississippi River and quit.

Before Oakley had a chance to audition for the show, Cody's manager hired her.

Now she was ready to ride really high. In 1885, the show attracted 150,000 people in 40 cities, and that was just the beginning.

Oakley spent most of the next 16 years performing in Buffalo Bill's spectacle, helping make it the largest and most popular traveling show in the country. "Seeing this really attractive, ladylike woman made people feel safe seeing a Wild West Show," Kasson said.

With Cody, Oakley performed up and down the East Coast and in Europe.

In 1887, the Wild West Show hit its stride. As part of the American Exposition in London, it drew as many as 40,000 people a day.

"Europeans saw these Americans, their energy, spirit and independence," Freifeld said. "Annie Oakley was part of the rugged individualism that was very American."

Just as the Europeans loved Oakley, she was taken with them. "At all events, they treated me delightfully," she said. "I suppose it was because a crack shot in petticoats was a novelty and a curiosity to them."

Royal Magnet

She turned down the president of France's offer for a commission in the French army and the king of Senegal's offer of 100,000 francs to kill tigers in his country. She did accept invitations to tea with Queen Victoria and a meeting with Austrian Emperor Franz Josef.

In her 50s and 60s, Oakley continued to work, giving demonstrations and teaching women and girls to shoot. "She was a strong advocate of women learning to shoot and learning self-defense," Fees said.

In the spring of 1926, in failing health, Oakley returned to Darke County, where she died on Nov. 3. Eighteen days later, Butler died.

Shortly before her death, legendary cowboy Will Rogers wrote that she was "the greatest rifle shot the world has ever produced."

Buzz up!