The Remarkable Life of Annie Oakley, America’s Greatest Sharpshooter
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 13 March 2026
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, Annie Oakley could do things with a rifle that most people would not even attempt. She shot right-handed, left-handed, from horseback, and even over her shoulder using a mirror. At a time when women were expected to remain in the background, she stepped into the spotlight with a rifle in her hands.
Her path to fame began in poverty. As a young girl in Ohio, Oakley hunted to put food on the table for her family. That skill eventually brought her to Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, where she became one of its biggest stars. Gun historian Ashley Hlebinsky shares the story of Annie Oakley’s life, her partnership with fellow sharpshooter Frank Butler, and how a quiet woman from Ohio became one of the most famous performers of the American West.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.3 | Guaranteed human. |
| 0:14.0 | And we continue with our American stories. |
| 0:18.1 | Annie Oakley was a shooting star, a magician whose magic wand was a gun. Right-handed, left-handed |
| 0:25.0 | on a horse through a mirror. He couldn't miss. At a time when women were only expected to fire up the oven, |
| 0:32.4 | Annie Oakley fired her way to fame as the world's greatest sharpshooter. In her personal life, he was a sharpshooter as well. |
| 0:40.8 | He was devoted to her marriage and to her faith. |
| 0:44.4 | Here to tell the story is Ashley Lubinsky. |
| 0:47.8 | Ashley is the former co-host of Discovery Channel's Master of Arms, |
| 0:52.0 | the former curator in charge of the Cody Firearms Museum, and president of the Gun Code LLC. |
| 0:59.6 | Here's Ashley. |
| 1:04.5 | One of the most famous women in American history has become the subject of legend and speculation and adoration. |
| 1:18.2 | Annie Oakley, who is a famed Marx woman that lived in the late 19th through the 20th century, |
| 1:23.8 | is known for a lot of different colorful history. |
| 1:26.7 | And she actually comes from really humble |
| 1:29.1 | beginnings. She was born Phoebe Ann Moses in 1860 in Dark County, Ohio, and pretty much |
| 1:36.0 | tragedy followed a lot of her younger life. Her father passed away around the time she was |
| 1:41.8 | eight, and as a means to support her mother |
| 1:44.6 | and her siblings, she started hunting. |
| 1:47.8 | And she would be so successful with the hunting that at some point she would pay off |
| 1:51.7 | her mother's mortgage. |
| 1:53.0 | So she definitely had a lot of skill even for a very young woman. |
... |
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