Posted on 04/29/2003 9:05:20 AM PDT by chance33_98
Movie tells of Maine woman's journey
A New Sharon schoolteacher has made a documentary film about a Minot woman nicknamed "Jackass Annie," who trekked across the country on horseback in the 1950s.
Mesannie Wilkins was desperately poor, alone, and in ill health when she left on her cross-country trip, which inspired a biography, "Last of the Saddle Tramps." Many local people know her remarkable story, but Kevin McShane decided it deserved a wider audience.
He hopes his film -- edited by J.P. Fortier, director of Farmington's public access channel -- will inspire someone to make a full-length feature about Wilkins and her journey, which began when she was 62. She took with her a dog, Depeches-Toi (French for "hurry up"), a horse, Tarzan, and $32 in money she'd earned growing cucumbers for pickles.
Seven thousand miles and two years later, she made it to California, where she'd originally wanted to go. By the end of her journey, she was a media icon, and later appeared on the Art Linkletter Show.
Grace Beacham was the voice of Wilkins, and the filmmakers worked to recreate 1950s Maine with a small budget. A Livermore Falls man donated an old Ford for one scene.
McShane's story ends when Annie's trip begins. He hopes that people can remember her more for the remarkable journey she took than the nickname townspeople gave her because she rode to work on a mule.
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