She was a Southern Belle from polite society, the inspiration for Miss Kitty on Gunsmoke, and a famous gambler who could hold her own in the saloons and gambling joints of the Old West.
Over a hundred years later, the legend of Lottie Deno still captures our imaginations. Join us on Saturday, Feb. 24, at 1 p.m. as we welcome novelist Frank Thurmond to discuss his book Lottie Deno: A Novel of the Civil War & the American Southwest.
Thurmond weaves an exciting tale of an innocent young woman, Carlotta Tompkins, who, through her gambling prowess, becomes the infamous Lottie Deno.
She finds herself drifting from town to town and saloon to saloon in search of her fugitive outlaw lover, Frank Thurmond (a relative of the author).
Along the way, she meets up with Doc Holliday and gets herself kidnapped by desperados and kidnapped from the kidnappers by a band of Kiowa warriors. Thurmond will bring this adventure to life as he talks of the original research he did on Lottie to write his novel.
Thurmond’s other novels include Before I Sleep: A Memoir of Travel and Reconciliation (2012, Et Alia Press), Ring of Five: A Novella and Four Stories (2015, Et Alia Press) and Remembrance and Other Poems (2022, Braddock Avenue Books).
In addition to writing, he is a musician and an award-winning filmmaker. He teaches literature, composition, music, and screenwriting at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
With his own personal connection to Lottie, Thurmond brings to life the brutal world of the Old West where lives were taken over a simple throw of the dice, a world that the beautiful young Lottie survived while adding a touch of class to the brutality.
Lottie’s own traveling trunk that once held her winnings is on display in the museum. The book will be available for purchase at the event.
Admission is $5 per person and free to museum members.
The Frontier Times Museum is located at 510 13th Street in Bandera, Texas, www.frontiertimesmuseum.org.
