January 23, 1882
New Haven, Connecticut
- 1882 Elizabeth Servaty born in New Haven
- 1902 employee at the Winchester factory in New Haven
- met Adolph (Ad) Toepperwein
– Americanized as the “Topperweins”
– he was sales rep and exhibition shooter for the Winchester - 1903 They married
- 1904 son Lawrence was born
- Ad gave Elizabeth her first shooting lessons and discovered that she was a “natural.”
- After shooting a tin can, which made a “plinking” sound. Elizabeth exclaimed, “I plinked it”
– first to coin this phrase? - Ad and Plinky performed for forty years
- first woman in the United States to qualify as a national marksman with the military rifle
- first woman to break 100 straight targets at trapshooting
– she repeated this more than 200 times
– often with a twelve-gauge Winchester model 97 pump - held the world endurance trapshooting record of 1,952 of 2,000 targets in five hours and twenty minutes
- 1940 son Lawrence died at the age of thirty-six
- 1943 last tour
- January 27, 1945 “Plinky” Toepperwein died
- 1969 inducted into the Trapshooting Hall of Fame in Vandalia, Ohio
Annie Oakley once said to Plinky, “Mrs. Top . . . you’re the greatest shot I’ve ever seen.”
https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fto43
About Elizabeth “Plinky” Toepperwein
Elizabeth “Plinky” Toepperwein (1882-1945) was one of the greatest exhibition shooters in American history and a pioneer for women in the shooting sports. Born Elizabeth Servaty, she was brought to New Haven, Connecticut, as a young child and at 19 worked as a cartridge loader at the Winchester Repeating Arms Company plant there. In 1903 she married Adolph “Ad” Toepperwein (1869-1962), a Texas exhibition shooter, moved to San Antonio, and learned to shoot. Winchester then hired the couple to tour and give exhibitions as the “Fabulous Topperweins.”
In 1906, at Sea Girt, New Jersey, she became the first woman to qualify for the U.S. War Department’s national marksmen’s reserve. She was also the first woman to break 100 straight clay targets, a feat she repeated about 200 times. In November 1916 in Montgomery, Alabama, she broke 1,952 of 2,000 clay targets in a single session. Winchester rehired her in 1940, and a 1941 Winchester film documents one of her later exhibitions. She died in 1945 at age 62. Her advice to women who asked how she became so good was simple: practice.
Key Facts
- 1903: Married exhibition shooter Ad Toepperwein and moved to San Antonio
- 1906: First woman to qualify for the War Department’s national marksmen’s reserve
- November 1916: Broke 1,952 of 2,000 clay targets in Montgomery, Alabama
- 1940: Rehired by Winchester
- 1945: Died at age 62
Learn More
Sources
- The Forgotten Female Sharpshooter Who Surpassed Annie Oakley – Texas Monthly
- Adolph Toepperwein – Wikipedia
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