Couple aiming at historic role

By Jim Etter

Published: June 17, 2007

HITCHCOCK — It's almost like the Oklahoma centennial was scheduled for Doug and Marna Jean Davis.

For about a decade, they've been historical re-enactors, portraying sharpshooter Annie Oakley and husband, Frank Butler.

Along with the main feature of their traveling show — "Annie” firing .22-caliber, black-powder blanks and bursting balloons held by "Frank” in his teeth — Doug, 51, plays someone he happens to resemble: former president and adventurer Theodore "Teddy” Roosevelt.

Marna Jean, a native of Hitchcock, says it all began at home when she learned to spin wool as a young girl. That was after her grandfather, Art Scheffler, gave her and her brother, Jayme Scheffler, some sheep.

"I started spinning wool when I was about 9,” she says. "Spinning leads to costumes, and the whole thing snowballs.”

She began playing Annie Oakley much later, but has continued making pioneer clothing.

"And Doug,” she said of her husband, "is entirely too much like Teddy Roosevelt to not portray him.”

Doug Davis, a native of Missouri and former Wyoming rancher, also is a saddle-maker and Western folklorist.

Their penchant for the past has grown into a commercial operation, Shooting Star Enterprises, with its hub a museum in this small Blaine County community. Except for the Sooner Co-op, it's the biggest business in Hitchcock.

They've appeared at several Oklahoma locations, including the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City; plus in other states including Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Missouri, Ohio, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.

They also host local day camps, which depict the Victorian period and are designed to teach girls sewing, dances and games and "tea-time” manners of yesteryear.

The Davises charge fees for performances and day camps, but offer free attractions such as receptions, lectures and dress displays in the museum.

When not occupied with history, Doug and Marna Jean help Marna's father, Jim Scheffler, and her brother, Jayme, in their farm and ranch operation here.

While the Shooting Star operation during the Oklahoma centennial year is coincidental, observers say its particular celebration of the past is definitely in tune with the state's 100th birthday.

Besides, the Davises say, their re-enactments have Oklahoma connections.

Annie Oakley, a native of Ohio, performed with the combined attractions of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and Oklahoma's Pawnee Bill's Historic Wild West, plus on occasion she visited Oklahoma where she had relatives.

Annie Oakley was portrayed by another Oklahoman, Reba McEntire, who starred in a Broadway revival of "Annie Get Your Gun” in 2001.

Teddy Roosevelt visited Oklahoma a few times, including once when he took part in a wolf hunt in the Big Pasture area shortly before statehood.

Marna Jean says she began re-enacting Annie Oakley about 12 years ago when someone suggested it because of her outdoor and rural background.

She began researching Annie Oakley seriously — even visiting the real Annie's relatives in Ohio — and "fell in love” with the role.

That included the shooting part.

"I've been into guns all my life,” she says, noting that raising sheep often means keeping coyotes away.

And even though she doesn't use real ammunition in her "Annie” performances, she still has to aim accurately to avoid stinging Doug's face with black powder.

She adds, with some modesty: "And I am a pretty fair shot.”