#WomenoftheWest Annie Oakley

Annie Oakley became very good at a "man's sport" at a time when it wasn't very common. She also found her voice in trying to let other women know it was okay - encouraging others to try again.

She was born Phoebe Ann Moses August 13, 1860 in Ohio.

Annie's sharpshooter skills led her to be able to get her family out of poverty as well as gain her national publicity as part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. Many say her talent was part luck and part knowledge.

Which ever it was, it proved useful to her family as she initially used her gun skills to place food on the table after returning home to find her mom with another baby and a deceased husband.

Her initial chance was given to her as a fill in for an event her husband's partner had gotten ill shortly before.

In my opinion (and something not too well known), one of her greatest accomplishments may be that Sitting Bull wanted to meet her. He gave her a pair of moccasins he'd worn at Little Bighorn and even gave her a nickname of her very own - Watanya Cicilla.

Noting again her work with Buffalo Bill, she was the first woman hired to fill an all male position.

Modern Day Thought: My boys and girls can all shoot. Even before we decided to live rural and start a ranch. An example I've used is even in the "gun slinger days" Annie Oakley still used her marksmanship for good unlike a number of the other famous women of the Wild West.