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INSIDE THIS ISSUE
1
Reminding Myself to See Others With Empathy
2
Fun Farmers Market Activities for Families
2
Looser Helmet Law Linked to Rising Motorcyclist Deaths
3
Bizarre Traffic Laws You Won’t Believe Exist!
3
Stuffed Peppers
4
The Legend of Calamity Jane
Remembering a Wild West Icon: Calamity Jane
Few stories of the Old West are complete without a mention of Calamity Jane, a sharpshooter and storyteller famed for her daredevil ways. On the anniversary of this famous Missourian’s death on Aug. 1, 1903, her legend is worth remembering. Calamity Jane was best known for her shooting, heavy drinking, brash manner, and preference for men’s attire, as well as a rumored relationship with the legendary frontiersman James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok. Among her reported heroics was saving passengers in an overland stagecoach by diverting a band of pursuing Indians and taking over the reins after the driver was killed. Less widely known is her legacy of compassion to the sick and needy. During the smallpox epidemic of 1878, Calamity Jane tended to many sufferers with no apparent concern for herself. She also nursed back to health a family stricken by a contagious strain of diphtheria. A journalist of the era called her “generous, giving, kind-hearted, sociable, yet when aroused, has all the daring and courage of a lion or the devil himself.”
Born Martha Jane Canary in Princeton, Missouri, on May 1, 1852, Jane was the oldest of six children. After the death of both her parents, she became head of her family in her teens and moved her siblings to Wyoming, where she worked in jobs ranging
from dishwasher and dance hall girl to ox-team driver and Army scout. She even reportedly worked as a prostitute.
Separating truth from fiction in Calamity Jane’s legend is difficult. Her autobiography is the source of much of the lore surrounding her life, and she was, after all, a storyteller. She claimed to have received her nickname from an Army officer whose life she saved during an Indian uprising. Although her story was challenged by another officer who called Jane Continued on Page 3 ...
Practicing in Missouri and Illinois
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