1910 – Born in Cincinnati, grew up in Port Angeles
1917 she riddled a neighbor’s washtub with BBs and got a paddling
– her father also gave her a .22-caliber rifle
1920 she contracted polio, permanently affected her vocal cords
1929 Captain of the women’s rifle team University of Washington
– postal matches
1935 – 1937 competed in the National Rifle Matches at Camp Perry, Ohio
1936 placed 33rd out of 1,400 of the nation’s best competitors in the President’s Hundred-Rifle Match
– the only woman to place in to 100 until the mid-1960s
1949 -1998 first woman elected to the National Rifle Association’s board of directors
1961 first woman to earn the Army’s Distinguished Rifleman Badge
1972 first woman to serve on the federal government’s National Board for the Promotion of Rifle Practice
1983 Leland Bull Sr., died, her husband of 50 years,
1998 she went to a hockey game the night before she died
a national rifle marksmanship trophy is awarded in her honor
– The Alice Bull Trophy
– awarded to the civilian having the highest aggregate score in the President’s Match and the National Trophy Individual Rifle Match
First woman ever elected to Honorary Life Membership in the NRA
1928 bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison
1931 law degree the University of Wisconsin Law School
World War II
– rank of Colonel
– served on the staff of General Frank Merrill in the jungles of Burma
Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army.
1959 – 1970 Executive Vice President of the National Rifle Association (NRA)
1964 supported banning the inexpensive, often low-quality, handguns known as Saturday night specials
– supported limits on mail-order gun purchases
1968 Gun Control Act
– wrote in the American Rifleman “appear unduly restrictive and unjustified in their application to law-abiding citizens, the measure as a whole appears to be one that the sportsmen of America can live with.”
“We do not think that any sane American, who calls himself an American, can object to placing into this bill the instrument which killed the president of the United States.”
1920 competed in Summer Olympics
– won the gold medal in the individual free pistol event
– won two gold medals as member of the American team in the team 50 metre free pistol competition
1934 – 1935 President of the National Rifle Association
1934 – testified during hearings on the National Firearms Act
“I have never believed in the general practice of carrying weapons. I seldom carry one. I have when I felt it was desirable to do so for my own protection. I know that applies in most of the instances where guns are used effectively in self-defense or in places of business and in the home. I do not believe in the general promiscuous toting of guns. I think it should be sharply restricted and only under licenses
“I believe in regulatory methods. I think that makes it desirable that any such regulations imposed should not impose undue hardships on the law-abiding citizens and that they should not obstruct him in the right of self-defense, but that they should be directed exclusively, so far as possible, to suppressing the criminal use, or punishing the criminal use of weapons.”
Annie Oakley taught more than 15,000 women how to use a gun
Sixth of nine children ( born Phoebe Ann Mosey )(Phoebe Ann Moses)
began trapping before the age of seven
began shooting and hunting by age eight
1865 – Her skill paid off the mortgage on her mother’s farm (when Annie was 15)
1872 – Annie ran away from the home where she was “employed”
1881 – Thanksgiving Day, Baughman & Butler shooting act was being performed in Cincinnati – Frank E. Butler placed a $100 bet he could beat any local “fancy shooter”, Butler lost the match and the bet
1882 – Oakley married Frank Butler
1885 – They joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show ( She earned more than any performer, except for “Buffalo Bill” Cody himself )
1889 – Paris Exposition
1898 – Oakley promoted women in combat ops for the US Military
1894 – Performed in the eleventh film made = The “Little Sure Shot of the Wild West,”(the 11th movie made on earth, by the inventor of motion pictures)
1902 – left the Buffalo Bill show for good
1902 – The Western Girl a stage play written especially for her
1904 – A newspaper reporter wrote a libelous article, Oakley spent 6 years dealing with libel lawsuits (lost only one of 55)
1912 – Annie Oakley House built in Cambridge, Maryland Oakley collected less in judgments than her legal expenses
Oakley continued to set records into her sixties
1922 – She hit 100 clay targets in a row from 16 yards (at age 62)
Oakley was involved in extensive philanthropy for women’s rights and the support of young women she knew
1922 – a car accident forced her to wear a steel brace on her right leg
1925 – visited to the Grand American (Shotgun shoot) and “breaks a 97”
1925 – she died of pernicious anemia in Greenville, Ohio at the age of 66
1925 – Butler was so grieved by her death he stopped eating and died 18 days later
Oakley’s ashes were placed in one of her prized trophies and laid next to Butler’s body in his coffin
After her death, it was discovered that she spent her entire fortune on her family and her charities
1981 – Annie Oakley Committee placed a stone-mounted plaque in the vicinity of her birth site
1996 – The Annie Oakley House added to the National Register of Historic Places
Trapshooting Hall of Fame
National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame
National Women’s Hall of Fame
Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame
New Jersey Hall of Fame.
Oakley’s personal possessions, performance memorabilia, and firearms are on permanent exhibit in the Garst Museum and the National Annie Oakley Center in Greenville, Ohio
Oakley believed that women should learn to use a gun for the empowering image that it gave
I would like to see every woman know how to handle guns as naturally as they know how to handle babies.
Oakley believed strongly that it was crucial for women to learn how to use a gun, as not only a form of physical and mental exercise, but also to defend themselves
