Several items belonging to wild west entertainer Annie Oakley went up for sale this weekend at the “Legends of the Wild West” auction. Her gun, a Parker Brothers 12-gauge shotgun, was the big-ticket item at the auction, bringing in $143,000.
Annie Oakley’s Stetson hat, photographs, and letters also went up for sale. The entire “Legends of the Wild West” auction brought in close to $520,000.
Paul Fees, former senior curator at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming, said:
“She was just sparkling as a public performer…. This petite person handling firearms was startling. She was a natural at it. She made it look easy.”
News OK reports that the Annie Oakley auction was put together by the Wild West entertainer’s great-grandnieces. Tommye Tait and Terrye Holcomb inherited the items from their mother, Butler Serene, who passed away in 2009.
According to the Associated Press, Oakley became famous in the 1880s as a sharpshooter in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. She passed away at the age of 66 in 1926.
In 1954, American Western television created a show based on the life of the famous sharpshooter.
Here’s an episode of “Annie Oakley.”
