Page 73 - 2002 DT 12 issues
P. 73
What’s Inside!
Featured Articles
Annie Oakley......................................1
Special
Open Letter to Friends Members........3
Boot Tracks........................................5
A Magnificent Classroom...................6
Departments
October 2002 News & Notes....................................2
Programs & Hikes.............................4
Desk Schedule...................................6
Bulletin Board...................................8
They fell in love and later married. The
ANNIE OAKLEY ○ she was eight she could nail a squirrel ○ Butler-Oakley combination began a se-
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with her fathers old muzzle-loader, and
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. . . Little Miss Sure Shot ○ ○ do it time after time. Four years later the ○ ries of successful tours, and it was
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○ budding crack shot got a rifle and shot- ○ around this time that Annie began to
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by Chuck Kleber ○ gun of her own. It could be called a love ○ regularly use the name Oakley,
○ affair, of sorts. This attractive girl with ○ supposedly taken from a suburb of Cin-
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n a day when Americas heroes were ○ ○ ○ cinnati. Frank shrewdly realized that
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almost exclusively men, when names ○ ○ ○ Annie was the big attraction and opted
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Ilike Buffalo Bill, Kit Carson and ○ ○ ○ to become her manager so full attention
Wyatt Earp dominated romanticized sto- ○ ○ could be given to this charismatic girl.
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ries of the frontierfights with the ○ ○ ○ So now, instead of The Great Far West
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Sioux, exploration, and prowess with a ○ ○ ○ Rifle Shots, it was Annie in the
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guna diminutive young girl stepped ○ ○ ○ ○ public eye.
into view and simply wowed the world. ○ ○ It wasnt long before Buffalo Bill,
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Her name was Annie Oakley, and few ○ ○ the famous frontiersman and showman,
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men would have dared to challenge her ○ heard about this young girl who could
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incredible skill with firearms. She be- ○ ○ ○ shoot the cork out of a bottle and extin-
came famous, toured Europe and left ○ ○ ○ guish a candle flame with a bullet. He
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such a legacy that a highly successful ○ ○ ○ offered Annie a place in his Wild West
musical was written around her career, ○ ○ ○ show. Sixteen years of exhibition shoot-
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Annie Get Your Gun. Even an 83-epi- ○ ○ ing and travel followed. Annie appeared
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sode TV series, Annie Oakley, ran in ○ ○ before the royalty and leaders of Europe.
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1954-56. ○ ○ ○ You are a very clever little girl, said
Annie Oakley wasnt her real name, ○ ○ ○ Britains Queen Victoria. In Germany,
and she was not born a Westerner. She ○ Crown Prince Wilhelm (the future Kai-
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was born of Quaker stock on August 13, ○ ○ ser) was so struck by Annies astounding
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1860 in Darke County, Ohio, then ○ ○ the blue-gray eyes and black hair was ○ ○ skills and so confident in them that he
known as the wilds. Annie was named ○ taken by the steel and feel of guns ○ asked her to shoot the ash off a cigar
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Phoebe Anne and the family name was ○ . . . and they seemed to be taken by her. ○ held in his mouth. She did.
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Mozee. Her father was a keen hunter ○ Frank Butler was a well-known ex- ○ Despite all the fame, Annie retained
and her mother had a talent for art, but ○ hibition and trick-shot artist who would ○ an undeniable charm and never lost her
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they were poor and the ability to shoot ○ often challenge locals to a match. At one ○ femininity. Author Paul Reddin in his
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game was important to food being on ○ event in Ohio, he bet a hotel owner $100 ○ history, Wild West Shows, said . . . this
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the family table. It wasnt easy; there ○ that he could beat any of the local fancy ○ ○ woman displayed, obvious ability while
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were eight brothers and sisters. They had ○ ○ shooters. Up stepped Annie Oakley. ○ remaining conventionally feminine, al-
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already started to call her Annie when, ○ Who was this 15 year-old girl to take on ○ ways making her entrance a pretty
at age six, she begged for permission to ○ ○ such a known expert? Butler not only ○ ○
go hunting with her brother. By the time ○ ○ lost the match to her, he lost his heart. ○ ○ Annie Oakley, continued on p. 7
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