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After being "discharged" from the Army, Jane supposedly returned to Deadwood, South Dakota, so that she could grant Wild Bill the divorce he wanted. He wanted to marry Agnes
Lake. Even after their marriage, Jane continued to hang around. Then on August 2, 1876, Hickok was killed while playing poker, shot in the back. She mourned him for quite some time. She stayed in the area and frequently doctored the sick. A smallpox epidemic broke out in 1878 and Jane often tended the sick. There were few women in the area at the time and her nursing was greatly appreciated.
After that she was hired as a teamster. She drove a big wagon from Rapid City to Fort Pierre. Other than her occasional habit of wandering off and getting drunk, she was a competent driver. Apparently she also spent time in Green River, Wyoming, and Blackfoot, Montana, as a prostitute. She married Charles Burke in El Paso in 1885. Two years later she had a daughter. But the marriage didn't last. She left him long before they were officially separated in 1895. She wandered her way around the west, resorting to her profession. In August of 1893, she joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and toured the East Coast and England. He later kicked her out for excessive drinking. But the show biz bug had bitten and she started performing for the Palace Museum Show. Her act consisted of a monologue in which she described her life and especially her (supposed) rescue of Wild Bill. She started writing her autobiography during that time, but was soon kicked out of the show for drunkenness. She was found sick and drunk in the poorhouse of Bozeman, Montana, in 1901. By that time she had started selling copies of her autobiography (only a pamphlet really) to support her drinking habit. She got sick and delirious, but recovered. She started performing with the Pan American Exposition for a short time. She was arrested in a barroom brawl in which two policemen were injured. She was dismissed from the show. Later that year she shot up a bar in Billings, Montana. On August 2, 1903 she died at Terry, South Dakota, of pneumonia. She was 52 years old. A funeral was held in the First Methodist Church. A large crowd was on hand. Her last wish was to be buried next to Wild Bill. Her friends arranged for her to be buried within twenty feet of him. They changed the date of her death to August 3, to match his, then the 27th anniversary of his murder. Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article Calamity Jane - Page 2 in The Old West is owned by . Permission to republish Calamity Jane - Page 2 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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