It’s one of those names we all know, maybe a little vaguely: Annie Oakley. But who was she? Most people today know very little about her; in fact, you may think she’s a myth, a character from Western lore like Paul Bunyan, Pecos Pete, or the Lone Ranger.
Even the musical Annie Get Your Gun, which is supposedly about the real person, twists her life significantly. In it she loses a shooting match on purpose to a male marksman, then marries him; in real life, the 16-year-old Annie both won that match and married her man. And he became her press agent.
The real Annie Oakley was among the best-known and best-loved Americans of her day, perhaps the first female superstar in this country.
Read more about Annie Oakley from AmericanHeritage.com.