Lottie Deno: Queen of the Paste Board Flippers

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Instead, Lottie, Johnny, and the ever-present Mary Poindexter, took to the Mississippi River, becoming experts at working the riverboat gambling parlors and tidewater towns.

"Not much is known about Lottie's days on the river," says Rose, but in her later life, Lottie recounted a story that "the boat [she] and Mary were traveling on stopped along a sandbar in the river. Late in the evening, Lottie and Mary decided to take a walk. Lottie preceded Mary along the shoreline, carrying her parasol and enjoying the evening air. Suddenly Mary's sharp eye spotted a large rattlesnake coiled and ready to strike her mistress. The tall, strong woman lunged forward and threw herself on top of the reptile, saving Lottie from injury. Mary herself was bitten and became deathly ill, necessitating the amputation of a finger."
 

Mississippi Riverboat gambling, 1890s.

Doc Holliday was one of the most deadly shootists

 in the American West.

This image available for photographic prints HERE!

Legend has it that, during a faro game at the Bee Hive, Doc and Lottie were in the middle of a game when Big Nose Kate Elder, Doc's girlfriend, arrived in a jealous rage. An argument ensued in which both women drew their guns, ready to fire. Doc had to step in and stop the fight.

Cynthia Rose claims that, "according to several historians, Kate and Lottie had heated words one night over Doc. After Kate and Doc had made it known they were a team, Kate began to show her jealousy" and "one evening she accused Lottie of trying to steal his affections. The accusation brought Lottie to her feet:

"Why you low down slinkin' slut!" shouted Lottie. "If I should step in soft cow manure, I would not even clean my boot on that bastard! I'll show you a thing or two!" whereupon she pulled a gun, and Kate also drew a weapon. Doc Holliday placed himself between the two women."
 

Bearing in mind Lottie's reputation as an elegant lady, and the fact that stories tend to get ever juicier when told by many people over a long period of time, this may not be historically accurate, no matter what the historians say. But one thing is probable -- the two women had serious words over Doc.

At Fort Griffin, Johnny Golden, the jockey-gambler, came back into Lottie's life—but not for long. Although he found his former sweetheart dealing cards at the Bee Hive, next day, he was shot dead on the street behind the saloon. Lottie paid for his burial suit plus $65.00 for a coffin, but did not attend the funeral. Rather she sat in her house with the curtains drawn.

Fort Griffin today, June, 2007, Kathy Weiser.

This image available for photographic prints and

 downloads HERE!

The most famous story about Lottie during her Fort Griffin  days is this one, taken from "Doc Holliday" by John Myers:

It was during the time [Lottie] was dealing faro in the Flats that a couple of tinhorn gamblers, known respectfully as Monte Bill and Smokey Joe, quarreled over a short card game. Each accused the other of cheating, and each was probably right. Each thought he could beat the other to the draw and each was only half right. There were two corpses on the floor when Sheriff Bill Cruger rushed in to take charge. Everybody that could had made tracks, with the exception of the red-headed Lottie, who was coolly counting her chips as the sheriff arrived. When the sheriff said that he couldn't understand why she had remained on the scene, she merely murmured, "But then you have never been a desperate woman."

In several versions of the story, the money on the table that night disappeared and most witnesses believed it ended up in Lottie's purse.

It was said of Lottie that she had class and refinement. A lifelong friend told an interviewer many years later that she "was a fine looker... in manners a typical Southern Lady. She had nothing to do with the common prostitutes... she was not a 'gold digger'." Lottie, "stood apart from the rabble".

After five years, Lottie and Frank left Texas for New Mexico where they finally married. Not long after, Frank for the second time used his Bowie knife to terminate a man. It was self-defense, but it was the turning point for Frank and Lottie. They swore off gambling and settled down in Deming. Frank succeeded in mining and real estate, eventually becoming vice president of the Deming National Bank.

Lottie, under her married name Charlotte Thurmond, became a well respected member of the community. Although she quit dealing, according to legend, in 1892 the original structure of St. Luke's frontier church was financed by $40,000 of winnings from a poker game with Doc Holliday in attendance and hosted by Lottie Deno. And, for a fact, Lottie Deno made one of the altar cloths used by St. Luke's. Respectability was at last hers.

Frank and Lottie were together over 40 years when he passed away in 1908. Lottie lived another 26 years. When she died in 1934, she was buried beside Frank, her headstone set a few inches behind Frank's left shoulder "in the lookout seat."

Epilogue: The character immortalized as the beautiful, redheaded Miss Kitty who ran the Longbranch Saloon in the famous "Gunsmoke" radio and television series, was based on Lottie Deno.

© Maggie Van Ostrand, August, 2007

About the Author: Maggie Van Ostrand's articles have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the Boston Globe, various magazines; monthly in the Mexican publication, El Ojo Del Lago and mexconnect.com, and numerous contributions to Texas Escapes Online Magazine, from which this article was provided.

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