Firing Line

Everyone could use some genealogical target practice from time to time — unless you're related to Annie Oakley. America's sharpshooting sweetheart was born Phoebe Ann Mosey Aug. 13, 1860, in Darke County, Ohio. With her deceased father's old Kentucky rifle, at 14 she set her sights on small game for the Katzenberger brothers' grocery store in Greenville, Ohio. By the time she was 15, her skilled shooting scared up enough money to pay the entire $200 mortgage on her mother's house. Later on, Oakley scored a bull's-eye when she defeated her future husband, noted marksman Frank E. Butler, during his traveling show's stop in Cincinnati. The couple joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in 1885, where Oakley quickly became a shooting star. In honor of the markswoman's birthday, we take aim at her family history.