Martha Jane Cannary, better known as Calamity Jane, was an American frontierswoman, sharpshooter, and storyteller.
47 Facts About Calamity Jane
2.
Calamity Jane is said to have exhibited compassion to others, especially to the sick and needy.
3.
Calamity Jane was known for her habit of wearing men's attire.
4.
Much of the information about the early years of Calamity Jane's life comes from an autobiographical booklet that she dictated in 1896, written for publicity purposes.
5.
Calamity Jane was born on May 1,1852, as Martha Jane Canary in Princeton, within Mercer County, Missouri.
6.
Calamity Jane's parents were listed in the 1860 census as living about 7 miles northeast of Princeton in Ravanna.
7.
At age 14, Martha Calamity Jane took charge of her five younger siblings, loaded up their wagon once more, and took the family to Fort Bridger, Wyoming Territory, where they arrived in May 1868.
8.
In Piedmont, Calamity Jane took whatever jobs she could find to provide for her large family.
9.
Calamity Jane worked as a dishwasher, cook, waitress, dance hall girl, nurse, and ox team driver.
10.
Calamity Jane moved on to a rougher, mostly outdoor and adventurous life on the Great Plains.
11.
Calamity Jane was involved in several campaigns in the long-running military conflicts with Native Americans.
12.
Calamity Jane never saw a lynching and never was in an Indian fight.
13.
Calamity Jane was simply a notorious character, dissolute and devilish, but possessed a generous streak which made her popular.
14.
Calamity Jane became ill afterwards and spent a few weeks recuperating.
15.
Calamity Jane then rode to Fort Laramie in Wyoming and joined a wagon train headed north in July 1876.
16.
Calamity Jane was at Fort Laramie in July 1876, and she did join a wagon train that included Wild Bill Hickok.
17.
In 1876, Calamity Jane settled in the area of Deadwood, South Dakota, in the Black Hills.
18.
Calamity Jane presented evidence that Calamity Jane and Wild Bill had married at Benson's Landing, Montana Territory on September 25,1873.
19.
Calamity Jane does seem to have had two or four daughters, although the father's identity is unknown.
20.
The benefit raised a large sum; Calamity Jane got drunk and spent a considerable portion of the money that same night and left with the child the next day.
21.
Calamity Jane thought that Jane honestly wanted her daughter to have an education and that the drunken binge was just an example of her inability to curb her impulses and carry through long-range plans.
22.
Bennett later heard that Calamity Jane's daughter did "get an education, and grew up and married well".
23.
Calamity Jane claimed that, following Hickok's death, she went after his murderer Jack McCall with a meat cleaver, since she had left her guns at her residence.
24.
Stagecoach driver John Slaughter was killed during the pursuit, and Calamity Jane took over the reins and drove the stage on to its destination at Deadwood.
25.
In late 1876 or 1878, Calamity Jane nursed the victims of a smallpox epidemic in the Deadwood area.
26.
In 1881, Calamity Jane bought a ranch west of Miles City, Montana, along the Yellowstone River, where she kept an inn.
27.
In 1893, Calamity Jane started to appear in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show as a storyteller.
28.
Calamity Jane returned to the Black Hills in the spring of 1903, where brothel owner Madame Dora DuFran was still running her business.
29.
Calamity Jane's condition deteriorated quickly, and she died at the hotel on Saturday, August 1,1903, from inflammation of the bowels and pneumonia.
30.
Calamity Jane was buried at Mount Moriah Cemetery, South Dakota, next to Bill Hickok.
31.
Calamity Jane was played by Marin Sais in the 1940 serial Deadwood Dick, by Frances Farmer in the 1941 Western The Badlands of Dakota, and by Jane Russell in the 1948 Bob Hope comedy The Paleface.
32.
Calamity Jane is a 1953 musical-Western film from Warner Bros.
33.
Calamity Jane appears as a side character in the computer RPG Worlds of Ultima: Martian Dreams.
34.
Calamity Jane is the central character in Larry McMurtry's book Buffalo Girls: A Novel.
35.
Calamity Jane is a central character in Pete Dexter's novel Deadwood.
36.
An alternative universe version of Calamity Jane is a character in the short story "Deadwood" in Corsets and Clockwork, a steampunk anthology.
37.
In Calamity's Wake, a novel of historical fiction written by Natalee Caple, Martha, or Calamity Jane, is one of two main narrators; the other is Jane's daughter Miette.
38.
Calamity Jane appears in Michael Crichton's novel Dragon Teeth.
39.
Soprano Dora Ohrenstein commissioned five pieces compiled under the title Urban Diva, the second piece, Ben Johnston's Calamity Jane to Her Daughter is a theatrical setting of selected letters.
40.
Alain Bashung, Chloe Mons, Rodolphe Burger released the album La Ballade de Calamity Jane based on Jane's letters to her daughter.
41.
Calamity Jane is mentioned in the 2016 song "The Lighter" by the French pop-rock band Superbus, from the album "Sixtape".
42.
Colt is unsure if Calamity Jane can handle the job because miners and Indians seek to steal the valuable medication.
43.
Calamity Jane becomes infatuated with him, and he receives threats from Doc, who covets Jane for himself.
44.
The television movie Calamity Jane featured her life story, including her alleged marriage to Wild Bill Hickok and the daughter she purportedly gave up.
45.
Actress Jane Alexander portrayed Calamity and was nominated for an Emmy in 1985 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Special.
46.
Calamity Jane is the central character in Larry McMurtry's book Buffalo Girls: A Novel, and in the 1995 TV adaptation of the same name, Calamity Jane is played by Anjelica Huston, with Sam Elliott as Wild Bill Hickok.
47.
In 1997, a cartoon series on Kids' WB, The Legend of Calamity Jane, depicted a young Jane.