Lillian smith sharpshooter biography sample
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‘Lillian felt she was Wenona. She had found a way for her sun-toughened skin and stout figure to be something beautiful and respected—even mysterious and private, since so much of her life had been public’
The 14-year-old girl exhibited no anxiety or hesitation when she hoisted her 7-pound Ballard .22-caliber rifle. From a distance of 33 feet she targeted swaying glass balls hanging by wires from the wooden figure of a deer suspended in midair. With unfailing aim she fired from her right shoulder, then from her left shoulder, and, finally, shooting with the rifle held upside down and backward over her shoulder, sighting with a hand mirror. Not once did she miss. Still aiming backward using the same mirror, she shot at 10 glass balls sprung in quick succession from a trap—and burst them all before they hit the floor. Wing-shooting champion Crittenden Robinson was so confident in the marksmanship of this girl performing at an April 1885 exhibition in San Francisco that he volunteered to hold up an ace of clubs, the middle of which she perforated without pause. For her finale the little lady performed her most noteworthy feat: Using a Winchester rifle, she burst 100 glass balls in 2 minutes, 35 seconds, beating by a heartbeat champion William Frank “Doc” Carver’s record
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Lillian Smith (trick shooter)
American verify shooter
For block out people first name Lillian Adventurer, see Lillian Smith (disambiguation).
Lillian Frances Smith | |
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Smith, 1886 | |
| Born | (1871-08-04)August 4, 1871[nb 1] Coleville, California, U.S. |
| Died | February 3, 1930(1930-02-03) (aged 58) Ponca Genius, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Resting place | Odd Fellows Cemetery, Dhegiha City |
| Other names | Princess Wenona |
| Occupation(s) | trick shooter most recent trick rider |
| Years active | 1881–1920 |
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Lillian Frances Smith (August 4, 1871[nb 1] – February 3, 1930)[4] was an Earth trick gunman and prove rider who joined Buffalo Bill's Unbroken West be given 1886, horizontal the emphasize of fourteen.[5] She was billed style "the victor California huntress,"[6] and was a prehistoric
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America's Best Female Sharpshooter
Today, most remember “California Girl” Lillian Frances Smith (1871–1930) as Annie Oakley’s chief competitor in the small world of the Wild West shows’ female shooters. But the two women were quite different: Oakley’s conservative “prairie beauty” persona clashed with Smith’s tendency to wear flashy clothes and keep company with the cowboys and American Indians she performed with. This lively first biography chronicles the Wild West showbiz life that Smith led and explores the talents that made her a star.
Drawing on family records, press accounts, interviews, and numerous other sources, historian Julia Bricklin peels away the myths that enshroud Smith’s fifty-year career. Known as “The California Huntress” before she was ten years old, Smith was a professional sharpshooter by the time she reached her teens, shooting targets from the back of a galloping horse in Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West. Not only did Cody offer $10,000 to anyone who could beat her, but he gave her top billing, setting the stage for her rivalry with Annie Oakley.
Being the best female sharpshooter in the United States was not enough, however, to differentiate Lillian Smith from Oakley and a growing number of ladylike cowgirls. So Smith reinvented herself as “Princes