Frank E. Butler

Francis E. "Frank" Butler (January 30, 1847 – November 21, 1926) was an Irish American marksman, in Wild West variety shows. He was married to sharpshooter, Annie Oakley. While his birth date is listed on his and Oakley's U.S. Passport application, as February 25, 1852, the notice for Butler posted, by the Associated Press, in 1926 has his age, at death, as 76 years old, in which he was born in 1850. According, to Irish birth and baptism records, Butler was baptized, on January 30, 1847. His parents were Michael Butler and Catherine Whelan. He was the oldest of their five children.

Frank Butler was born in County Longford, Ireland and moved with his family, to the United States, at the age of 13. He initially worked a series, of odd jobs, including one, as a glass blower, while living near, Camden, New Jersey. Butler married Henrietta Saunders, around 1870 and they had two children, Edward and Katie. The two divorced a few years later. Sources mentioning Butler's first wife, as Elizabeth, are inaccurate. She is actually his granddaughter, her father being Edward.

Frank Butler eventually developed a shooting act and toured with variety shows. After, meeting at a shooting competition, in Cincinnati, Ohio, Butler married Annie Oakley, on August 23, 1876, although Butler would later claim the date, as June 20, 1882. They developed their shooting act in 1882 when Oakley stood in for Butler's sick partner. In 1884, the Butlers joined the Sells Brothers Circus, and from 1885-1901, were a fixture, on Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. As Oakley became the star attraction, Butler became her manager and wrote articles and press releases. Oakley said that the financial part was always in her husband's hands. Oakley returned to performing, between 1911-1913, with Vernon Seaver's "Young Buffalo Show", with Butler again as her manager. Butler also worked as a representative of the Union Metallic Cartridge Company and as a salesman for the Remington Arms Company.

After they retired, Frank Butler and Annie Oakley Butler had brief residencies, in New York City and Nutley, New Jersey, as well as Cambridge, Maryland, and Pinehurst, North Carolina, before returning to Ohio.

Frank Butler's wife died, on November 3, 1926, in Greenville, Ohio. Biographer B. Haugen reports, that Butler stopped eating, after his wife's passing, which caused his own death, from malnutrition and starvation, eighteen days later, on November 21, 1926. However, according to Shirl Kasper, the death certificate said that he had died of "Senility". Butler was living with Oakley's younger sister, Hulda Haines, in Ferndale, Michigan at the time of his death.

The musical Annie Get Your Gun is loosely based on the lives of Annie Oakley and Frank Butler. Ray Middleton originated the role of Frank in the musical opposite Ethel Merman as Annie, Howard Keel starred in the film version opposite Betty Hutton, Bruce Yarnell played Butler in the 1966 Lincoln Center revival of Annie Get Your Gun, with Ethel Merman again as Annie Oakley and Tom Wopat played the role in the 1999 Broadway revival. In 1957, a television production starring Broadway legends Mary Martin and John Raitt was broadcast on NBC.