Annie Oakley

1860–1926 SHARPSHOOTER UNITED STATES

I ain’t afraid to love a man. I ain’t afraid to shoot him either.

—ANNIE OAKLEY

Annie was hungry. Her sisters and brother were hungry too. They had been hungry a lot since their father died. The birds and squirrels seven-year-old Annie caught in her traps just weren’t enough. She glanced at the rifle hanging over the mantel. Annie’s mother didn’t believe a girl should be shooting a gun, but her mother wasn’t home.

Although Annie had never shot a gun before, she had been hunting with her father countless times. She was sure she could figure out how to load and shoot it. Annie pulled a chair over to the fireplace, climbed up, and lifted the rifle off its perch. It felt good in her hands. It felt right. That day, young Annie went out and shot herself a squirrel, which her mother happily cooked up for dinner.1 It was her first time shooting a gun, but it would certainly not be her last. In fact, little Annie went on to become one of the most famous and best shots in the world. All because she was hungry.

Annie Oakley was born Phoebe Ann Moses on August 13, 1860, in a rugged cabin a few miles outside the tiny town of Woodland, Ohio. It was close to the woods, where Annie spent most days tagging along with her father as he hunted for food.

When she was five, Annie’s father was caught in a blizzard and died soon after of pneumonia. That left Annie’s mother supporting six children on her small nurse’s salary ($1.25 per week).2 It wasn’t enough. They were poor, and the family often went hungry. Fortunately, Annie’s father had taught her how to make animal traps, and the five-year-old was able to catch something small for their dinner nearly every day. Once she got ahold of her father’s rifle, Annie brought home bigger game, like turkey and rabbit, to feed her family.

If there’s a gun in your or someone else’s house, don’t do what Annie did! Guns are very dangerous, and you should never touch one unless you are trained and have a license. And have your parents’ permission.

In spite of her mother’s protests, Annie was a crack shot by the age of ten. “My mother  .  .  .  was perfectly horrified when I began shooting and tried to keep me in school, but I would run away and go quail shooting in the woods.”³

While Annie’s early years might seem hard, her life soon got even harder. Annie’s mother felt she couldn’t afford to take care of her children anymore, so she sent them away. Nine-year-old Annie was sent to work at the Darke County Infirmary, a “poorhouse,” where orphans or homeless people lived and worked when they had nowhere else to go. Annie was such a good worker that it wasn’t long before she got what she thought was a lucky break: a couple offered her a job working for them. They said they’d give her time off to hunt and go to school, and they promised her fifty cents a week.

For the next two years, Annie’s life was a nightmare. The couple didn’t pay her a dime, working her like a slave, beating her, and keeping all the letters she wrote her mother. Soon, Annie had had enough. One day when they left her alone in the house, she snuck away and hopped on a train back home.

Annie soon began bringing home the bacon by entering local shooting contests called “turkey shoots.” In turkey shoots, you didn’t shoot an actual turkey but a bull’s-eye, from fifty-eight feet away.

“It kind of galled me,” she said, describing her competition, “to see those hulking chaps so tickled in what was no doubt to them my impertinence in daring to shoot against them—and I reckon I was tickled too when I walked away with the prize.”⁴

Once, the family Annie worked for, or “the wolves” (as she called them), put Annie outside barefoot in the freezing cold to punish her for falling asleep during her chores.

Soon, Annie won so many prizes that she was banned from entering any more contests. Instead, she started selling the game she hunted to local shops in Ohio. The shopkeepers sold her turkeys and pheasants to fancy hotels and restaurants in the bigger cities nearby. Unlike most hunters who killed birds with buckshot that had to be painstakingly removed before you could eat it, Annie was such a good shot that she could kill a bird with one bullet. Much easier to prepare for dinner! Annie’s birds were in high demand, and she was soon making more money than she’d ever seen. At age fifteen, Annie proudly presented her mom with $200  .  .  .  enough to pay off the mortgage for their family’s house!

Believe it or not, Annie’s shooting skill not only bought her a house, but it brought her true love! In 1875, a shooting match was organized in nearby Cincinnati with a cash prize of one hundred dollars (a fortune back then). Annie couldn’t resist. What she didn’t know was that she’d be up against a professional sharpshooter: Frank Butler.

Frank was surprised by his competition as well: “I almost dropped dead when a little slim girl in short dresses stepped out to the mark with me.”5 The two were neck and neck for most of the match, each hitting all their flying targets  .  .  .  until Frank missed and Annie didn’t. She won the match with a perfect score. She also won Frank’s heart.

Frank and Annie married a year later.

Frank earned a living by performing in a traveling show (part of his act was shooting an apple off the head of his poodle, George!). He invited his new wife to join him, and the sharpshooting teen was an instant hit. She shot the flames off candles, the corks out of bottles, and the end of a cigarette out of her husband’s mouth! “Butler and Oakley” toured the Midwest, and before long, Annie was the main attraction.

One of Annie’s biggest fans was the great Lakota chief, Sitting Bull. He was so impressed with her that he lavished her with gifts (including the moccasins he’d worn when he battled General Custer), and insisted on adopting her as his daughter. He named her Watanya Cicilla, which means “Little Sure Shot.” Later, he joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show just so he could spend more time with her.6

In 1885, she and Frank joined a new act called Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. It was a combination rodeo, circus, and theater that aimed to show audiences around the world what life in the Wild West was supposedly like. The show had a huge cast of cowboys and Indians, as well as hundreds of horses, elk, and bison.

Annie performed with the Wild West show for the next seventeen years. In her act, Annie skipped into the arena wearing a hand-embroidered Western dress and cowgirl hat, blowing kisses to the crowd. She played up her playful, girlish persona so that what came next was even more surprising to the audience: Annie could shoot with her right hand or her left! She blasted clay targets that Frank tossed in the air—first one at a time, then two, then three, then four. She never missed.

Annie loved to sew and took great pride in creating and decorating her own costumes. She embroidered them with flowers and other designs and added intricate beadwork. By the end of her career, she had 35 in all.

Annie could toss a couple of glass balls in the air, spin around, and shoot both before they hit the ground. She could lie on her back across a chair and hit a target upside down, and she could hit a target while turned away from it, looking in a mirror and shooting over her shoulder. As if that wasn’t hard enough, she would up the ante by hitting targets while riding a galloping horse, and then hit targets while standing on a galloping horse! Crowds were amazed—they’d never seen anything like Annie Oakley.

Annie rode more than just horses. She once hitched up a moose to a sled and took him for a spin down a snowy New York City street. The moose crashed into an apple cart and gobbled up all the fruit, leaving Annie to pay the bill!

Before long, this country girl was traveling the world. The Wild West show went to New York City to perform, and officials threw them a parade right through downtown. Tens of thousands of spectators came to the show, making it the most popular entertainment in New York history.7 Next, they headed to Europe, loading all the cowboys, Indians, and hundreds of animals onto a ship. Think how that must have smelled belowdecks!

Annie spent years touring Europe. In England, she met and performed for Queen Victoria, who called her a “clever, clever little girl.”⁸ She won a shooting match against the Grand Duke of Russia. And in Germany, she rescued a prince by pulling him out of the way of a stampeding horse.

Just like celebrities today, Annie had to deal with false stories in the media. While in France, newspapers around the world reported that Annie was dead. She had to telegram to her parents in Ohio explaining that she was, in fact, still alive.

Annie’s life was filled with adventure.

When she returned to America, Annie Oakley was one of the country’s biggest stars. Her shows drew record crowds wherever she went, and she continued to add new and more daring tricks to her act. She “scrambled” eggs by shooting a batch of them midair. She shot a playing card, cutting it in half. Annie never rested on her reputation.

Annie spent her later years giving back, donating her time and skills to those in need. She performed in benefits for the Red Cross, for veterans’ hospitals, for soldiers wounded in World War I, and for many other causes. She also discovered a passion for teaching and taught more than fifteen thousand women how to shoot (without charging a cent!).9

Even at the end of her life, Annie was still a “crack shot,” as Frank called her, able to hit every target he threw. She died of pernicious anemia in November 1926 at age sixty-six. Her beloved Frank died eighteen days later.

Annie Oakley loved to shoot and went after her dream with a laser focus. Although her near-slavery childhood was a lot like Cinderella’s, Annie made her own magic to escape. Through skill and determination, she traveled the world and became a sharpshooting superstar.

Any woman who does not thoroughly enjoy tramping across the country on a clear, frosty morning with a good gun and a pair of dogs does not know how to enjoy life. God intended woman to be outside as well as men, and they do not know what they are missing when they stay cooped up in the house.

—ANNIE OAKLEY

HOW WILL YOU ROCK THE WORLD?

I plan to rock the world by becoming an outstanding track athlete. I have run track for many years, and my goal is to develop my skills so that I can reach the Olympics. I will inspire girls younger than me to follow their dreams and reach for the stars.

DENEE HUCKABY AGE 14