Remembering Josephine Earp

In the legend of the American West and cowboy culture, few people loom larger than Wyatt Earp. A lawman who roamed in 19th century America, his legend was enshirined at the Shout Out at the Ok Corrall, portrayed in many movies, a key moment in the wild history of the American story.

And his third wife, Josephine, had an amazing life too.

She was the daughter of a baker -- and was Jewish! Raised mostly in San Francisco, she ran away at age 14 and headed to Arizona. Allegedly she worked as a prostitute under the name of Sadie, got married, and eventually moved to the notorious Tombstone. Eventually she got rid of her husband and hooked up the frontier marshall Wyatt Earp -- they married in 1892 and stayed together until his death in 1929. After the infamous shootout, the couple moved around from Colorado, Nevada, even Alaska, prospecting for gold, until settling in Los Angeles. She died in 1944.

Josephine's life story is somewhat mysterious and controversial. In 1967 her supposed autobiography was published called I Married Wyatt Earp -- and it turns out most of it was made up. Also, Josephine was cagey about much of her past, mostly about the hooker part, so she remains something of a fascinating mystery.

That said, one thing is certain -- this legendary lady of the wild American West, this icon of the frontier was native New Yorker. Josephine was born in NYC in 1861 before her Polish immigrant baker father took the family west. Her life is a example of how NYC is not only the great American city but it's the great American entry point, the mother city, the seed from which the rest of the nation grows.