A real hero of the Old West, Annie Oakley was born in 1860 and soon became a formidable marksman with a rifle, due in part to the death of her father when she was a child, which forced her to shoot her own food to survive. Few men were ever able to match her rifle skills and more than a few women learned how to handle a gun from Oakley. One of the stars in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, her life was chronicled in the musical, Annie Get Your Gun.

In 1952, the syndicated television series, Annie Oakley debuted, based upon her adventurous life. In a genre almost entirely dominated by men, it would take Gene Autry’s Flying A Productions to give the western folk hero her due. Gail Davis took on the role of Oakley, astride her trust steed, Target, and did most of her own stunts. The show was set in the town of Diablo and geared primarily towards young viewers who eagerly anticipated Annie’s adventures each week, alongside Sheriff Lofty Craig and her little brother, Tag.

Although the show would never reach the popularity of some of her male counterparts, it helped breakdown some of the stereotype barriers, and to the show’s credit, it still managed four years of original syndication. Considering that the majority of new shows on television today never come close to the four-year mark, that’s quite an accomplishment. But so was everything else related to Annie Oakley, a true American legend.