Annie Oakley, With Rifle, In Her Dotage (1922)

At age 62, Annie Oakley hit 100 clay targets from 16 yards.

This classic 1922 photograph shows legendary markswoman Annie Oakley, still a sure shot just four years before her death, as she displays a firearm given to her by Buffalo Bill. The image from the New York World-Telegram & Sun profiles the 62-year-old Oakley in the same year she suffered injuries in a bad automobile accident, which could have been fatal but only temporarily disarmed her. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle mistakenly pronounced her dead once in 1890. An excerpt from that false report:

“Annie Oakley, the champion woman rifle and wing shot of the world, died at Buenos Aires, South America, on Monday last of congestion of the lungs. At the age of 10 years she was accustomed to handle a light gun with great proficiency and soon obtained a reputation as being one of the best rifle shots, defeating most of the prominent shots in various matches. Just before her departure for Europe last year she joined the Fountain and Coney Island gun clubs in their shoots at Woodlawn Park, Gravesend L.I., and made many friends by her modest and unassuming manner.”

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Oakley, steady of eye and hand, in 1894:

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