Big Nose Kate is known for being girlfriend to the famous Doc Holliday, but this complex, hot-tempered woman was much more than a simple companion to one of the best gunslingers of the old west.
Mary Catherine Elder Haroney was born in Hungary on November 7, 1850 to aristocratic parents. Her father received the prestigious appointment of the Emperor Maximillian’s personal surgeon when the emperor traveled to Mexico, in 1862. The family would not remain in Mexico long, however, for in 1865 when the emperor’s rule collapsed, Dr. Haroney and his family fled to Davenport, Iowa.
Kate’s parents died within months of one another: her mother in March and her father in May 1865. The children were placed in foster homes for a time. Kate went to the home of Otto Smith in 1867, but ran away soon thereafter, stowing away on a steam ship bound for St. Louis.
Captain Fisher, the ship’s captain, discovered the young Kate, but rather than remove her from the ship, he took her to St. Louis, where she assumed the name Kate Fisher and enrolled in a convent school.
Big Nose Kate met Doc Holliday in Fort Griffin, Texas
Kate met Doc Holliday in Fort Griffin, Texas at John Shanssey’s Saloon around 1877. She was a stubborn, tough woman who possessed a temper comparable to that of Doc Holliday. Their on-again-off-again relationship began at this time and would last for his lifetime.
In 1877, Doc Holliday got into a fight over a poker game with Ed Bailey. Bailey foolishly drew a gun on Holliday, but was not quick enough to escape being sliced across the stomach by the quick-handed Holliday. Because the death of Bailey was the result of self-defense, Holliday did not attempt to run but was taken into custody.
Later, a vigilante group assembled to deal Holliday justice on their terms. Kate snuck away and set fire to a barn within city limits, thereby threatening other structures. While the rest of the town was busy putting out the fire, Kate approached the officer guarding Holliday with a pistol in each hand and sprang her lover from jail.
On stolen horses, they rode to Dodge City, Kansas and she assumed the name Mrs. J. H. Holliday. They tried to behave for one another: he promised to renounce the gambling lifestyle; she vowed to stay clear of the saloons. Neither of these occurred.
Big Nose Kate and Doc Holliday Traveled to Tombstone, Arizona
Their tumultuous relationship was littered with fights. At one point, one fight was so bad that he left her in Dodge City and went to Colorado. Returning to Dodge City after a gunfight gone bad in Las Vegas, Holliday found that Wyatt Earp and Kate were both gone. Receiving the news that Wyatt was headed to Tombstone, Arizona, Holliday decided to follow him there.
Kate was on her way to Tombstone herself and the two ran into one another in Prescott, Arizona. By the summer of 1880, they arrived in Tombstone together.
After one particularly bad fight, Kate left Holliday and the outlaw gang of Tombstone, the Cowboys, found her. Getting her to drink even more alcohol, they forced a false confession of Holliday’s involvement in a stagecoach robbery. Holliday was taken into custody, but released the following day when Kate sobered and recanted her testimony.
Big Nose Kate’s Life After Doc Holliday
Holliday gave her some money and put her on a stagecoach out of town. It is likely that he spent time with Kate and her brother in Colorado from 1882 until his death in 1887. Kate married a man only after Holliday’s death.
After working in various hotels and saloons, Kate died on November 2, 1940 in the “Arizona Pioneers Home” just five days before her ninetieth birthday.
Her colorful life is overshadowed by the life of her even more colorful love affair, but Big Nose Kate carved a piece of old west history out for herself to be sure.
