Phoebe Anne Oakley Moses was a famous markswoman who performed for seventeen years in Buffalo Bill's show that recreated scenes from the Old West. She was born on August 13, 1860, Darke County, Ohio and died on November 3, 1926, Greenville, Ohio.
Annie Oakley was a very skilled markswoman and went on to single-handedly foil train robberies, shoot bears and panthers and kill a wolf that already had her in its clutches. After her father passed away when she was five, Oakley had to help support her family, Annie helped feed the family by trapping game before picking up her father's rifle.
Tragedy struck again when Oakley's stepfather died in 1870. Struggling to make ends meet, her mother sent some of her children to live with neighbors. A local farmer took Oakley into his home to help care for his children. However, despite his promise that she would have time to go to school and hunt, she quickly became a servant.
She managed to escape and eventually returned home to her mother as a teenager. It was then that she began regularly selling her kills to the local grocers and hotels, earning enough to pay off the mortgage on her mother's house.
Her mastery of shooting became her career and even led her to meet her husband, fellow shooter Frank E. Butler, in 1875. Oakley was visiting her sister in Cincinnati when she was invited to a shooting match with Butler.
Both Oakley and Butler hit every pigeon that came out of the trap, until Butler's last shot landed beyond the boundary line, giving Oakley the victory. Soon after, the two married and began performing together.
Oakley was also passionate about teaching women to shoot for sport and protection, and is believed to have taught more than 15,000 women to shoot over the years through free classes.
Oakley soon considered other careers, such as starring in films or writing a memoir, but her health quickly declined after a car accident in 1922 left her with a permanent leg injury. In 1926 she was diagnosed with a blood disorder and died at age 66 in Greenville, Ohio. Her husband, who had spent the winter in North Carolina, died 18 days later.
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