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Katie
Elder: Her True Storyby
Maggie Van Ostrand |
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Katie
Elder was more, much more, than the title character in John Wayne's 1965 western,
"The Sons of Katie Elder," She was more than the portrayal by Faye Dunaway in
the 1971 film "Doc." Katie Elder was a real person, whose background was perhaps
more plaid than checkered. For one thing, there were all those names.
Besides being called Katie Elder, she was also known as Kate Fisher, Big Nose
Kate, Nosey Kate, Mrs. John H. "Doc" Holliday, Kate Melvin, and Kate Cummings.
Actually, she was born Mary Katharine Haroney in Hungary on November 7, 1850.
She died in 1940, and was buried under the name Mary K. Cummings in Prescott Arizona.
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historians of the Old West believe she was Mrs. Doc Holliday, and some don't.
Either way, she was quite a bit more than the "plainswoman" that revisionist history
books call her. Katie herself never denied that she was a rip-roarin', hard-drinkin,'
gun-slingin' prostitute. |
A
young Kate Haroney (seated) with her sister.
Photo courtesy legendsofamerica.com |
| Katie's
recorded background appears to have begun in a Fort
Griffin, Texas saloon in the fall of 1877, where she met gunslinger Doc Holliday.
An affair between them ensued, and she helped Doc escape from the law after he
knifed a man in a barroom brawl, killing him on the spot. There's more to this
than meets the eye, as you will discover very soon. |
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In
Dodge City Kansas the following year, the pair registered in a rooming house as
Dr. and Mrs. John H. Holliday. It is possible they were really married, but no
one knows for certain. Though Katie could be uncovered since she was a prostitute,
proof of their marriage has not, to date, been uncovered.
Doc and Katie
later moved on to Tombstone, Arizona, where in July 1881, Katie got extremely
drunk and, in that lamentable condition, was talked into signing a deposition
saying Holliday was one of the outlaws who had held up a stagecoach. Holliday,
understandably put out by this betrayal, dumped Katie the minute he was freed
of the charge. More about this event later.
Although she lived to be
nearly 90, legend has her being slain with a stray bullet fired by a drunk in
the Brewery Gulch saloon in Bisbee Arizona. This story is doubtless apocryphal,
which is, after all, how myths are made. She must have had an excellent public
relations representative to have spun such a saga. Again, the truth will be revealed
later on in this article.
Relentless
research has brought to light additional facts and details about Katie's life.
She
was born November 7, 1850 in Budapest, Hungary, the eldest daughter of a wealthy
physician named Dr. Michael Haroney. She received an education befitting an aristocrat's
daughter. She was literate, and spoke several languages, including Hungarian,
French, Spanish and English.
In 1862, Dr. Haroney left Hungary for Mexico
to accept a position as personal surgeon to Maximilian of Mexico. When Maximilian's
government crumbled in 1865, Dr. Haroney took his family to Davenport, Iowa. Mama
Horoney died in March, followed by Dr. Horoney in May of that same year, both
of unknown causes, and 14-year-old Kate was placed in the foster home of Otto
Smith.
At the age of 17, Kate left Smith and stowed away on a steamboat
to St. Louis, Missouri. Upon discovering his stowaway, Captain Fisher took pity
on her, and placed her under his protection. She took the Captain's name and,
under the name of Kate Fisher, entered a convent school in St. Louis, graduating
in 1869.
At one point, Kate claimed to have married a dentist named Silas
Melvin and to have borne him a child, although no record survives of either the
marriage or birth. She said that both husband and baby died of fever. This may
be the truth, or simply a young girl's fanciful imagination.
By 1874,
Kate had made her way to Dodge City, Kansas, calling herself Kate Elder. She worked
as a prostitute in a brothel run by Nellie Bessie Earp, wife of James Earp, an
older brother of the better-known Virgil, Wyatt, and Morgan, the Earp brothers.
Some historians speculate that she had a relationship with Wyatt, but Kate wrote
that she did not meet him until several years later. >
Doc Holliday, O.K. Corral ... continued next page
Copyright Maggie Van Ostrand
"A Balloon
In Cactus" - May 26, 2006 column |
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