Calamity Jane

From Wikipedia:
“Martha Jane Canary-Burke, better known as Calamity Jane (May 1, 1852 – August 1, 1903), was a frontierswoman, prostitute, and professional scout best known for her claim of being an acquaintance of Wild Bill Hickok, but also for having gained fame fighting Native American Indians. She exhibited kindness and compassion towards others, especially the sick and needy, but she was an alcoholic and traded sexual favors for money. This contrast helped to make her a famous and infamous frontier figure.”

She was born in Missouri, the oldest of six children. The family moved to Salt Lake City where her father died and she became head of the family. She moved them to Wyoming.

Wikipedia again: “She worked as a dishwasher, a cook, a waitress, a dance-hall girl, a nurse, and an ox team driver. Finally, in 1874, she found work as a scout at Fort Russell. During this time period, Jane also began her on-and-off employment as a prostitute at the Fort Laramie Three-Mile Hog Ranch.”

She claimed her name came from a skirmish with Indians where the unit Captain was shot but she managed to lift him onto her horse and to safety. Capt Egan on recovering, laughingly said: ‘I name you Calamity Jane, the heroine of the plains.’ A more popular belief is that she instead acquired it as a result of her warnings to men that to offend her was to “court calamity”.

Wikipedia: “In 1876, Calamity Jane settled in the area of Deadwood, South Dakota, in the Black Hills. There, she became friends with, and was occasionally employed by Dora DuFran, the Black Hills’ leading madam. She became friendly with Wild Bill Hickok and Charlie Utter, having traveled with them to Deadwood in Utter’s wagon train. Jane greatly admired Hickok (to the point of infatuation), and she was obsessed with his personality and life. After Hickok was killed during a poker game on August 2, 1876, Calamity Jane claimed to have been married to Hickok and that Hickok was the father of her child (Jane), whom she said was born on September 25, 1873, and whom she later put up for adoption by Jim O’Neil and his wife. No records are known to exist which prove the birth of a child, and the romantic slant to the relationship might have been fabrication…..

“In 1893, Calamity Jane started to appear in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show as a horse rider and a trick shooter. She also participated in the Pan-American Exposition. At that time, she was depressed and an alcoholic….Jane returned to the Black Hills in 1903. For the next few months, Jane earned her keep by cooking and doing the laundry for Dora’s brothel girls in Belle Fourche. In July, she traveled to Terry, South Dakota. While staying in the Calloway Hotel on August 1, 1903, she developed pneumonia and died at the age of 51.”

In 1953 Doris Day starred as Calamity Jane in a movie by that name.