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She set out to have it all — fame, success, wealth, respect, and influence. Her name is Roxie Belle McCord Roberts, and she sprang from an unlikely background for anyone imagining a life so large, let alone a woman coming of age in the last quarter of the 19th century.

Born in 1878 in a small farming town in southern Illinois corn country to a discredited father and a mother who died only months later, and fostered from infancy, Roxie Belle nevertheless accepted no personal limits. From her youth onward, and against all odds, she pursued ambitious plans few women in her generation dared to imagine.

Roxie Belle willed herself into an extraordinary existence. After starting as a teacher in Iowa and Illinois, during her frenetic lifetime she added cattle ranching in Colorado, gold mining in Nevada, and owning and publishing a major American newspaper in California, plus songwriting, renowned political speaking, advocacy for women in business and community life, and round after round of courtroom brawling.

She was awarded an advanced degree, one of two college diplomas she earned. Unsatisfied with only intellectual pursuits, she took up trapshooting — appending championship-winning sportswoman to her roster of impressive accomplishments.

At the zenith of her influence and celebrity, Roxie Belle hobnobbed with powerbrokers by the scores, including presidents, governors, and members of Congress. Seemingly, all of her grandest dreams had been fulfilled. The American promise was hers to hold.

But chasing aspirations as expansive as hers, and flouting convention with such reckless abandon, came with hazards — and Roxie Belle ran hard up against them. The existence she carved out for herself with such unrelenting determination came crashing down. 

Paying the ultimate penalty for her audacious pursuits, by the end of her remarkable lifetime, she became an unknown figure even in the places of her greatest triumphs. Lost to history, the singular life of Roxie Belle McCord Roberts was forgotten — until now.

Finding Roxie Belle is her story.