There were a handful of real life famous cowgirls. To name three: Calamity Jane, Annie Oakley, but Belle Starr was my favorite, lol
For all her antics in the 1800’s I can’t believe she rode side saddle. It takes a heck of a rider to sit sidesaddle and wield a gun.
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“Belle Starr was born Myra Maybelle Shirley near Carthage, Missouri, on February 5, 1848. Her father was John R. Shirley, a farmer who later owned a local inn. Her mother, twenty years younger than her husband, was Elizabeth (Eliza) Hatfield Shirley, who was related to the Hatfield family of the infamous Hatfield-McCoy feud. As a child, Shirley attended Carthage Female Academy. She enjoyed the outdoors and horseback riding, becoming a better rider than most women of her time. Among Shirley’s childhood friends in Missouri was Cole Younger, who after the
Civil War joined neighbors Frank and Jesse James in robbing trains, stagecoaches, and banks. Fleeing the law, they sometimes hid on the Shirley farm, and the teenage Shirley became influenced by their life of crime.”
Belle Starr (1848–1889) - Encyclopedia of Arkansas
