Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind was the fictional wife of frontier hero Davy Crockett. Mentioned briefly in the Davy Crockett almanacs, she was one of the few heroines of the American West and represents the strength of frontier women who experienced many of the same hardships as men as they built their new lives in the wilderness. Few early tall tales celebrate female heroines although some strong women were mentioned in stories like “Sal Fink, the Mississippi Screamer,” “Nance Bowers Taming a Bear,” “Katy Goodgrit and the Wolves,” and “Sappina Wing and the Crocodile.” More modern adaptations of these stories tend to combine them as tales of the same woman: Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind.
In Mary Pope Osborne’s rendition of the origins of Sally Ann, Davy Crockett was bear hunting when he rested under a tree to wait out a rainstorm. He fell asleep for a long time and did not wake up until nearly sundown. When he woke up he realized that his head was stuck in the crotch of the tree. After repeatedly trying and failing to remove his head from the tree, he then heard a girl approach, who asked, “What’s the matter, stranger?” (Osborne 1991, 17). After explaining the situation and asking for her help, Crockett accidentally called her “sweetie,” and so the girl reached into her bag and took out a bunch of rattlesnakes, tying them together to make a long rope. While doing so she angrily told him all the things she could do: tote a steamboat on her back, outscream a panther, and wear a hornet’s nest for her Sunday bonnet. She was no “sweetie.” She looped the ends of her snake rope to the branch trapping Crockett, and pulled with such strength that Crockett was finally set free. He asked for her name, and she told him it was Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind.
Davy Crockett fell in love with the girl and asked all of his friends about her, who all seemed to know her. After hearing many fantastic stories about her—like the time she tricked a bear into square dancing and churning butter and the time she outwitted the varmint Mike Fink the riverboat man—Crockett finally asked Sally if she wanted to be his wife. She happily said yes, and it was said that from then on Crockett had trouble acting tough, at least around his wife.
Historically, there is no mention of a Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind in the biography of David Crockett (1786–1836), the man who inspired many tall tales. Crockett pursued several women in his youth and was married twice. He was jilted by his first fiancée, Margaret Elder, whose sister told Crockett just days before their wedding that she intended to marry another man. Although brokenhearted, in 1806 at age nineteen, he met and married his first wife, Mary Polly Finley (1788–1815). Crockett allegedly married Finley after extensive courting and negotiations with her Irish family; her father approved of the match, but her mother did not. After they were finally married, the two of them began their life together with only the barest necessities, like many frontier couples. Their marriage was described as a pleasant one overall, and Finley gave birth to three children: John Wesley, William, and Margaret Finley Crockett. Her cause of death in 1815 remains unknown although it is likely she suffered from one of the many deadly diseases plaguing the frontier, such as typhoid fever, dysentery, and smallpox, among others.
Upon Finley’s death in 1815, Crockett married his second wife, Elizabeth Patton (1788–1860), the widow of James Patton. Crockett’s marriage to Patton was described as one of practicality rather than romance. With three children left in his care after Finley’s death, he needed a dependable mate to help support and feed the family. Patton, his widowed neighbor, was described as large, practical, and sensible with good character and a mind for business, making her a fitting choice for his next partner. It was said that Crockett needed a wife and Patton needed a husband, which made their match a reasonable one. Neither Patton nor Finley overtly resembled the fictional Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind in terms of character, skills, or personality.
Emily Ann Francisco
See also Crockett, Davy; Fink, Mike; Tall Tales; Women in Folklore
Further Reading
Erdoes, Richard. 1998. Legends and Tales of the American West. New York: Pantheon Books.
Osborne, Mary Pope. 1991. American Tall Tales. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Thompson, Bob. 2012. Born on a Mountaintop: On the Road with Davy Crockett and the Ghosts of the Wild Frontier. New York: Crown.
Wallis, Michael. 2011. David Crockett: The Lion of the West. New York: W. W. Norton.