Annie, a very prim and proper sort who once yelled at a child for eating peanuts in front of a lady, was born into a privileged existence. Her father was the wealthy owner of a flour mill who saved enough money to sustain his family in prosperity for years after his premature death. Annie used her inheritance to learn to be a teacher and soon after married a nice young man of similar upbringing. It was at this point that everything went pretty much to shit for her. The couple had a child that died in infancy and soon after her husband was killed in the Civil War. Annie, now a young widow, did exactly what many young women do today when their lives go into the crapper. She traveled the country, taking odd teaching jobs to support herself, and eventually opened a dance studio which failed not long after its grand opening.
As Annie approached her 63rd birthday she faced the terrible reality that she was dead broke and getting older by the minute. The prospect of being a penniless invalid scared the living hell out of her. It scared her so much that she decided that her only hope was to do something crazy to make herself famous, which even back then wasn’t all that solid of a plan. In this day and age, a woman with no talent who wants to be famous can just make a sex tape. However, given that movie film was still in its infancy at the time, and that probably nobody would want to watch her so-called film even if it wasn't, Annie decided that her best option was to go over Niagara Falls in a pickle barrel. It was a feat no one had even imagined until that moment, which didn’t seem to bother Annie one bit. Hiring a manager by the name of Tussy to hype the event, she began making preparations to go over the falls on October 24, 1901, the date of her 63rd birthday.
Annie was not entirely a crazy person. First, she made sure her barrel was specially outfitted with harnesses and cushions. Second, she put her cat in the barrel and sent it over the falls a few days before just to make sure it would work. The cat came out fine, and apparently being the calmest house cat in the world, even posed for a picture soon after. Finally, she told everyone she was 44 for some reason, because apparently old timey people considered a 44 year old woman going over a waterfall as being more amazing than a 63 year old one for some reason. When the big day came, Annie climbed into her barrel in front of a crowd of curious onlookers. The barrel was then towed out to the middle of the river and set loose. She went over the falls and disappeared into the water and mist. Twenty minutes later it bobbed to the surface downriver. Annie survived, intact and unharmed.
Unfortunately, the feat did little to change Annie's luck. Soon after the event, her manager Tussy stole her barrel and started touring it around the country with a younger woman who pretended to be Annie. Without her barrel, Annie was forced to rely on her own charisma, which was about as magnetic as drying paint. What little money she did make in the preceding months of her five minutes of fame was spent paying private investigators to track down Tussy and the barrel, which none ever managed to do. Annie spent the rest of her life surviving by running a souvenir stand, posing for pictures, and even working as a fortune teller for a time. When she died at the age of 83 she was completely broke and what few admirers she had were forced to raise money to erect a headstone.
Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Annie_Taylor.jpg