Phoebe Anne Oakley Moses was born in Darke County, Ohio, on Aug. 13, 1860. Even as a child she won local acclaim for marksmanship. When at age 15 she won a contest with marksman Frank E. Butler, she became a nationally known figure. They later married and toured vaudeville circuits and circuses until 1885. In that year they joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in which she was one of its star attractions for 17 years. She was often called Little Sure Shot.

Her feats with a gun were uncanny. From 30 paces she could hit the edge of a playing card, a dime tossed in the air, or a cigarette held between her husband's lips. Once, when performing in Berlin, Germany, she obliged the Prussian crown prince (later Kaiser Wilhelm II) by performing the cigarette act while he held the cigarette.

In 1901 a train wreck left her partially paralyzed, but she eventually recovered and continued to do shows for many more years. She died in Greenville, Ohio, on Nov. 3, 1926. In 1946 Irving Berlin's musical ‘Annie Get Your Gun', based on her life, was staged on Broadway. It was made into a movie in 1950.