Why did Annie Oakley come to the west?
In ‘America’s Women’ Gail collins writes: ‘Far and away, Annie Oakley most succesfully embodied the cowgirl myth, although she did not cross the Mississippi until 1885, when she joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. She was born Phoebe Ann Moses in Ohio in 1860. When she was six years old, her father, a postman, died of pneumonia, leaving a wife and seven small children. Annie taught herself to shoot her father’s rifle and helped to support the family by selling game to the Cincinnati hotels. Her birds were said to be particularly desirable because they were always neatly shot in the head. Frank Butler, a famous trfick shot, arrived in town and met fifteeen-year-old Annie at a shooting club, where she beat him in a match. They were married the next year, and she joined his act. She quickly became a sensation, and Butler gradually became her manager rather than a costar. The butlers had what appered to be an exceedingly succesful marriage and partnership that lasted till their deaths a
