She learned hunting skills as a child to provide for her impoverished family in western Ohio. At the age of 15 she won a shooting contest against experienced marksman Frank E. Butler whom she later married. The couple joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in 1885 performing in Europe for royalty and heads of state astounding audiences with her skill as a marksman earning more than anyone except  Buffalo Bill himself. After a bad rail accident in 1901 which left her with temporary paralysis and 5 spinal operations they left Buffalo Bill for a less taxing career in a stage play written just for her. She also taught women how to use a gun for self defense. She never failed to delight her audiences with truly incredible marksmanship. One report says she was being watched by Chief Sitting Bull when she playfully skipped onto the stage, picked up her rifle, aimed at a burning candle and in one shot snuffed the flame with a whizzing bullett. Sitting Bull watched her knock corks out of bottles and slice through a cigar held in her husband's teeth.

Annie Oakley died of pernicious anemia in Greenville, Ohio at the age of 66. Her husband was so grieved at her death he stopped eating and died 18 days later in Michigan. Annie's ashes were put into one of her trophies and placed in his hands in his coffin and buried with him.