Annie Oakley - a woman-shooter, struck the whole West

Annie Oakley is the first American woman to become a national star. To conquer this peak helped her extraordinary accuracy and unshakable character, which repeatedly saved the girl in difficult situations. In general, her biography is a series of trials and phenomenal victories, which makes her story very entertaining for the modern reader.

Annie Oakley: biography of early years

The story of Annie begins with the difficulties that fell to the lot of her parents. It so happened that their home in the state of Pennsylvania burned to the ground and the young family had to quickly find a new home. They became the county of Dark, which is in the neighboring state of Ohio. It was here on August 13, 1860, that Annie Oakley was born.

It is worth noting the fact that Annie's parents were Quakers and, in addition to the girl, they raised five more children. Therefore, when in the winter of 1866 the head of the house Jacob Mozi died of pneumonia, the family was in a very difficult situation. The mother could not feed all the children herself, and therefore she gave the younger daughter to foster parents.

As Annie Oakley herself later admitted, these were the harshest days of her childhood. New parents forced the very young girl to work to exhaustion, but they practically did not feed her. The benefit of this "slavery" did not last long, as two years later her mother remarried and took her daughter home.

Unseen talent

However, we can not say that marriage brought prosperity to the family. As before, they barely had enough money to provide themselves with food and clothing. The benefit of hard times is pushing people to new ideas that can radically change their lives. So it happened with Annie Oakley, who took the father's musket in her hands to feed her family.

Thanks to firearms, she hunted ducks and deer, which in the district was in abundance. Meat girl sold on the market, and eventually began to supply it to local bars and restaurants. It went so well that Annie was able to save money and to her fifteen years completely repaid her mother's debts on a mortgage to the farm.

Fateful meeting

After her majority, Annie went to Cincinnati, as there were more opportunities. Here she quickly earned the glory of a well-aimed shooter, capable of hitting any target. And then once this city visited Frank Butler - the famous shooter and showman. He loved the public, and therefore always arranged a bet: anyone who wins it in shooting, is guaranteed to receive a $ 100 premium.

Naturally, many tried to overwhelm the Dodger, but, alas, they were far from the master. And only Annie Oakley was able to fight him on an equal footing. Moreover, she won against Frank, as he missed the target on the 25th shot. After that, she took her prize and left with her head held high.

And at this moment Frank Butler realized one important thing - he fell in love with this young lady. He knew, only she could make him happy. So he started courting Annie, and soon she gave up. June 20, 1882 a young pair of well-aimed marksmen married in the local church, after which they began their rapid ascent to the top of the star career.

Alleys of glory

Annie Oakley has achieved tremendous success thanks to performances in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. The first number with the participation of a woman-shooter saw the spectator in 1885, then she shot an apple lying on the head of her husband. Furor was stunning, which allowed Annie to continue to perform in this show.

At the same time, each new number became more and more complicated. So, she hit an ace of worms just like an image of the heart in the middle. Then she began to extinguish the flame of the candle from her revolver. And in the end she showed miracles of rate of fire, falling several times in the same target, while she was in the air.

Annie and The Sitting Bull

Talent Annie recognized by many. However, she was most proud of the fact that her Sitting Bull "- the leader of one of the Indian tribes of the Lakota people - was struck by her accuracy. In Buffalo Bill's show he came much earlier, but, truthfully, his numbers were not as brilliant as the others. The old Indian had only to make a circle of honor in the arena and give autographs to everyone who wished.

And yet Annie appreciated the care of the leader. And he in return gave her a real Indian name, which sounded like "Baby Tidy Shot". This choice was not accidental, since the height of the girl was just above 150 cm.

The Chronic Harsh Tests

Annie Oakley was often invited to all sorts of festivities in order to amuse the crowd. Because of this, most of her time she spent on travel and travel. And in 1901 he got into a railway accident, which deprives the girl of the opportunity to move. The doctors put the most disappointing forecasts, but she did not fear them. After experiencing five serious operations, Annie still rises to her feet, and soon again begins to shoot accurately at the targets.

However, two years later, she was waiting for another test of fate. In the newspapers there were notes that the star of the west is accused of stealing the goods with the aim of further exchange for cocaine. As it turns out later, the reason for this scandal was a fraudster who illegally appropriated the name of Annie Oakley. And yet, the reputation of the arrow-girl managed to shake, which had a bad effect on her health.

The final of the story

But despite all the adversity, Annie was a strong and confident person to the very end. Even in her 60s, she accurately knocked out all the targets at a distance of 15 meters. In addition, she worked hard to eradicate inequality among men and women.

Alas, at the beginning of 1922 Annie and her husband again got into an accident, this time in the car accident. Serious injuries the woman did not receive, but after this incident her right leg stopped bending. In addition, the injuries caused irreparable damage to health, and soon her organs began to fail one after another. Annie Oakley died on November 3, 1926 in the city of Greenville, Ohio.