Wild West Women

On a scorching hot Kansas day, just after noon, Alaura Lillie, clad in black from head to toe, rides in on her horse, Jed. "Repent, sinners! Save your souls!" She is Carrie Nation, come to life, and she circles her prey, a couple of shady ladies by the names of "Big Nose" Kate and Sadie Orchard. Her keg-busting hatchet held high above her head, she preaches the perils of demon rum. "Liquor is the fruit of the devil!"

Lillie, a registered nurse in her real life, is one of the Wild Women of the Frontier (WWOF), a historical performance group based in Topeka, Kansas. Having grown up in Alexander ("population 100, counting dogs and cats"), in Western Kansas, riding comes naturally to her. Such towns retain their cowboy flavor, and kids grow up with 4-H, livestock, and horsemanship. Throughout high school, Lillie raised hogs and occasionally cattle.

"I got involved in the Wild Women because they are just so much fun. The Wild Women gives me permission to get away from what I do all week and just have a good time." During the week, Lillie is a wife, mother, and nurse, working full-time at a special education preschool and part-time at the Colmery-O'Neil Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Topeka.

Recreating a Wild Woman

WWOF has 36 members. When Lillie auditioned, she and Jed, her sweet half-breed (part thoroughbred, part quarter horse), endured rigorous screening. Each hopeful chooses an audition piece from several scripts, and, during the audition, the performance committee looks primarily at riding and acting abilities. (The ability to sing is an added bonus.) The horse must pass a number of requirements concerning behavior and temperament.

After joining, and while developing a character based on a real historical figure, each woman fills in as a basic cowgirl or as one of the "soiled doves" (saloon girls). Some women arrive with a role in mind; others seek the help of the group's historian, Danielle Feinhage. Each rider researches her character, studying her life story, photos, and mode of dress. It takes about a year to develop a character. Once her dossier is complete, the group "interviews" the character and votes on her inclusion in the WWOF performance. Lillie has portrayed two women: May Lillie, to whom she is related by marriage, and now Carrie Nation.

"May Lillie was great because of the family link. I went to her girlhood home in Pawnee, Oklahoma, spoke to her relatives, and met someone who had once ridden her horse. Carrie Nation appeals to me even more, though, because of her activism against drinking and smoking. As a nurse, I relate to her passionate stand against the destruction [caused by] alcoholism. The women we portray are all special. They were rule-breakers in a man's world. I understand this – I was the first girl in Alexander to try out for boys' Little League and played on the boys' basketball team in grade school. They were not identified as feminists, but they definitely possessed the spirit of feminism."

Wildness Pays: Then and Now

Striving for authenticity, the women make or commission their costumes, gleaning clues from old photos and descriptions. The performance is choreographed, set to music, and emceed. The shows center around the characters. Many of the women of the Old West practiced the world's oldest profession; brothels were a common entrepreneurial venture. "It was a reality for many of these women that they would sell what they had – their bodies – to survive. They saw it as a legitimate business, and many times, so did the sheriff." But despite the fact that many of the characters are shady ladies with less-than-sterling reputations, the group is committed to providing family entertainment.

The WWOF is a non-profit organization surviving on members' modest yearly dues and performance fees. Since all members must travel with their horses, the performance fees can be steep if travel is involved. Their biggest trip was to Kentucky last year to perform at Equitana (The World's Fair of Equestrian Sports), which draws tens of thousands of people. The audience loved them. They're currently preparing to perform at a big show in Wichita, the original Kansas Cowtown. The shows also vary in length, from 10 to 40 minutes.

"Many people, especially kids, think that history is boring. The Wild Women, colorful and larger-than-life, show another side of history. I think that the women really dig us because we're doing something that they wish they could do … it's fun to be a little on the wild side of things."

Like the infamous Sadie Orchard, who used her brothel profits to build the first church in Kingston, New Mexico, the WWOF donate money from their earnings to local charities. Says Lillie: "They were strong, good-hearted women. I think they'd like that a lot."

Carrie Nation (1846 to 1911) was a Kansas woman devoted to the cause of temperance, who rode into saloons and smashed kegs of liquor with her hatchet. She was also prominent in the women's suffrage movement. May Lillie (1871 to 1936) was a Quaker society girl from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who married Gordon "Pawnee Bill" Lillie of Pawnee Bill's Far East Wild West Show. Lillie learned to ride, rope, and shoot, and, eventually, became an expert sharpshooter for the show.

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