Outlaw, Folk Figure. She received notoriety as an American Wild West figure after her life story was posthumously embellished and published. Born Myra Maybelle Shirley, the only daughter of six children, her parents were dirt farmers John Shirley and his wife Elizabeth Hatfield. She was called May by her family and later, was known as Belle. After moving to Carthage, her father bought a livery and blacksmith shop, and became a prosperous innkeeper. Frank and Jessie James and the Younger brothers, Cole, Bob and John, were customers at the inn. According to the book "Belle Starr," by Burton Rascoe (Random House, 1941), the "Shirleys were regarded as 'rather common,' because they had no slaves." She attended a private school, Carthage Female Academy, where her talent for music was recognized, and she began to play the piano. At the start of the American Civil War, her parents, being southern sympathizers, supported the Confederate troops in Missouri, including the leader of the notorious "Quantrill Raiders," William Clarke Quantrill. Following the burning and mass destruction in Carthage during the war, her family migrated to Scyene, Texas, establishing a hotel and tavern. Within a short time, the outlaws from Missouri, the Younger brothers, and Jesse James, used Shirley's hotel as a hideout. Her life became an odyssey of many marriages and affairs with felons, petty criminals, and unsavory characters. There are no records that she was ever involved in murder, cattle rustling, or robbery of trains, banks, or stagecoaches, yet she was a convicted horse thief. She married outlaw Jim Reed and lived in the Oklahoma Indian Territory at the home of outlaw Tom Star, a Cherokee. When he was charged with murder, they escaped to California, settling in Los Angeles. After their return to Oklahoma, Reed became involved with the Younger gang, which was killing and looting throughout Texas and Arkansas. Her husband, Jim, was killed by a deputy sheriff in Paris, Texas. The grieving widow remarried Bruce Younger after a one-month affair and soon after was the bride of Cherokee Sam Starr. She and Sam were charged with horse stealing and she received two six-month terms, which were served at a correction center in Detroit, Michigan. Newspapers reporting on the story dubbed her "The Bandit Queen." During her incarceration, her husband, Sam Starr, was killed by an Indian policeman on the Reservation. She lived up to her new name and quickly took several lovers, Jim Starr, Blue Duck, Jack Spaniard, and Jim French. She survived all but two of these men. While living in the Choctaw Nation, near the Canadian River, in an ambush, an unknown assassin shot her in the back with a shotgun and killed her. Many suspects were named; however, no one was ever charged nor convicted. Still alive, she was taken to her cabin, where she died an hour later, which was two days short of her 41st birthday. The women in the area dressed her in her finest black velvet riding attire with boots and adorned her with her expensive jewelry. A pearl-handled Colt 45, which was a gift from Cole Younger, was cradled in her hands. Placed in a homemade casket constructed of pine boards, she was conveyed to an open grave dug close to the front door by six Cherokee Indians. Neighbors then passed by the coffin while each Indian dropped a crumb of cornbread in the coffin in traditional tribal custom. Later the grave was robbed, the pistol and jewelry stolen. At the time of her death, she was virtually unknown outside of the Oklahoma Indian Territory. Then, The "National Police Gazette" published "Bella Starr, the Bandit Queen," a story of her supposed exploits. A paper flood resulted: embellished books, in the form of bibliography, biographies, many dime novels as well as featured magazine articles and then the ultimate in fiction, Hollywood movies. The big loop formed by the meandering Canadian River, where she lived, died and was buried, was named Younger's Bend by her. The Belle Star cabin, where she lived and died, consisted of three rooms. The walls of her cabin were covered with shelves full of books and her large mantel over the fireplace had trophies linked to her marksmanship. The cabin was destroyed in 1933. The nearby Younger Bend School stands in the 21st century near Porum, Oklahoma and was constructed by her to ensure that her daughter and the Indians received an education. The property is now open to paying tourists.