Description: Oakley Annie

Annie Oakley Dictates a Letter to Her Brother-in-law Six Weeks before Her Death in 1926


2pp ALS dictated by Wild West entertainer Annie Oakley (1860-1926) to her nurse and amanuensis Mrs. H.D. Clark. Written in Greenville, Ohio on September 20, 1926. Cream bifold paper in very good to near fine condition, with expected light paper folds. Each page measures 5" x 6.5". Accompanied by a postmarked envelope bearing a single George Washington 2 cent rose stamp, letter-opened at top and slightly toned. Also comes with a Heritage Auctions Letter of Authenticity signed by the original letter recipient's descendants and dated June 2012.


In the fall of 1926, retired performer and stuntwoman Annie Oakley was so sick that she was confined to her bed. Her nurse wrote this letter to brother-in-law William J. Butler on her behalf. While the first half of the letter is written in the third person, clearly designating that Mrs. Clark was writing it, it transitions to a first person voice at the bottom of the first page. Mrs. Clark refers to her patient as Annie Oakley Butler" twice, once in the letter's introduction, and once on the envelope's return address label. It is signed in Mrs. Clark's hand as "Sister Annie Butler per Mrs H.D. Clark. Nurse." Just six weeks later, on November 3, 1926, Oakley would die of pernicious anemia; the official name appearing on the death certificate was also ""Annie Oakley Butler.""


Excerpt contains untouched spelling and grammar:


"Dear Sir, I am writing you for Mrs Annie Oakley Butler as she is not well, is confined to her bed + is not able to sit up very much she received a letter from you some time ago asking for her husbands address, he has been in Mauricetown but the climate there is not good so on the advice of Dr. Betts, a friend of many years, he will return to Newark, where I wished him to go when he left here, The Climate is very damp + his cough is worse, he wanted to go bird shooting but has not been able to so so…

 



Yours with Love + best wishes


 

Sister Annie Butler


 

per Mrs H.D. Clark. Nurse."


Annie's husband Frank E. Butler (1847-1926) had also been in poor health, recuperating first in southern New Jersey, and then in northeastern New Jersey under the care of longtime friend and dentist Dr. Edwin Betts of Newark. Frank E. Butler died just two weeks after Annie. Certain biographers attribute his death to self-imposed starvation, caused by grief over his wife's death.


Annie Oakley was famed for her unerring marksmanship. Oakley had learned how to shoot, hunt, and trap animals to feed her backwoods Ohio family and supplement their income. Future husband Frank E. Butler, himself an itinerant exhibition marksman, was defeated by Oakley at a Cincinnati shooting match; the two were married in 1882. The couple later had a successful career performing for Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. Oakley's performing panache, diminutive size, and gender-bending usurpation of skills usually reserved for men made her a crowd favorite.


Provenance: Ex William J. Butler "> Butler's descendants Terrye Serene Holcomb and Tommye Serene Tait "> Auction


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