Oakley, Annie, 1860-1926

Annie Oakley born Phoebe Ann Mosey, August 13, 1860, Darke County, OH – November 3, 1926, Greenville, OH; father and step father died and poverty following the death of her father, Annie did not regularly attend school as a child, although she did attend later in childhood and in adulthood; Annie began trapping before the age of seven, and shooting and hunting by age eight, to support her siblings and her widowed mother, Her skill paid off the mortgage on her mother's farm when Annie was 15; 1875 had a shooting match with Frank Butler and beat him, the two married in 1876 in Widsor, Ontario; Butler and Oakley joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West in 1885. At five feet tall, Oakley was given the nickname of "Watanya Cicilla" by fellow performer Sitting Bull, rendered "Little Sure Shot" in the public advertisements; had professional rivalry with rifle sharpshooter Lillian Smith; In Europe, she performed for Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, King Umberto I of Italy, President Marie François Sadi Carnot of France and other crowned heads of state. Oakley supposedly shot the ashes off a cigarette held by the newly crowned German Kaiser Wilhelm II at his request; 1892 to 1904, Oakley and Butler made their home in Nutley, New Jersey; Oakley promoted the service of women in combat operations for the United States armed forces. She wrote a letter to President William McKinley on April 5, 1898, "offering the government the services of a company of 50 'lady sharpshooters' who would provide their own arms and ammunition should the U.S. go to war with Spain."; She left the Buffalo Bill show and in 1902 began a less taxing acting career in a stage play written especially for her, The Western Girl. Oakley played the role of Nancy Berry who used a pistol, a rifle and rope to outsmart a group of outlaws; Throughout her career, it is believed that Oakley taught more than 15,000 women how to use a gun; In 1894, Oakley and Butler performed in Edison's Kinetoscope film The "Little Sure Shot of the Wild West," an exhibition of rifle shooting at glass balls, etc. which was filmed November 1, 1894 in Edison's Black Maria studio by William Heise; Newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst published a false story that Oakley had been arrested for stealing to support a cocaine habit. The woman actually arrested was a burlesque performer who told Chicago police that her name was Annie Oakley, Oakley spent much of the next six years winning 54 of 55 libel lawsuits against newspapers. She collected less in judgments than the total of her legal expenses; In 1912, the Butlers built a brick ranch-style house in Cambridge, Maryland. It is known as the Annie Oakley House and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. In 1917, they moved to North Carolina and returned to public life; She continued to set records into her sixties, and also engaged in extensive philanthropy for women's rights and other causes, including the support of young women she knew. She embarked on a comeback and intended to star in a feature-length silent movie;