Missie & Jimmy

Among my favorite Old West partnerships is that of Annie Oakley and Frank Butler. The two met on Thanksgiving Day in 1875 in Oakley, Ohio and promptly squared off at a shooting competition. Annie was fifteen years old and stood just under five feet tall. Frank was twenty-three years old and was more than six feet tall. Annie won the shooting contest. Known to each other as Missie and Jimmy, the two married on June 22, 1876. Frank was impressed with Annie’s shooting skills and in 1882 began choreographing the trick shot and horseback riding routines she performed in the traveling circuses in which they were a part. The two had an impressive career together, appearing in venues all over the United States and Europe. They were married for more than fifty years when Annie died of pneumonia. Heartbroken, Frank stopped eating and died seventeen days after his wife. In 1935, the first western about Annie Oakley’s life starring Barbara Stanwyck opened in theatres across America. Annie Oakley, was an efficient, if historically inaccurate, biopic. Stanwyck plays the tomboy sharpshooter who romances fellow sharp shooter Preston Foster who portrays Frank Butler. The ninety minute film was directed by George Stevens. Stevens went on to make one of the definitive films in the genre – Shane. For more information about Annie Oakley and Frank Butler read Love Untamed: Romances of the Old West.