Submitted Stories
Kentucky native Carlotta Thurmond was the inspiration for “Miss Kitty” on the television series, Gunsmoke. Her childhood included traveling with her father to gambling houses throughout the United States and Europe. Her father also owned racehorses and would take her to the track. After her father died in the Civil War, she married a jockey who had worked for him by the name of Johnny Golden. He encouraged her to gamble and she became known as “Lottie Deno” which referred to “lotta denero.” She became notorious as a woman gambler. Her gambling opponents included Doc Holliday and other well known men from the history of the southwest. She left Johnny and moved to New Mexico, she left much of what she owned to the poor. She and her new husband Frank Thurmond moved to Kingston, New Mexico, where they opened a gambling establishment behind the Victorio Hotel. By 1882, Lottie reportedly stopped gambling entirely and she and Frank moved from Silver City to Deming. Her husband Frank became the vice president of the Deming National Bank. She owned the Broadway Restaurant and went on to co-founded St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. She died on February 9, 1934 and is buried along side her husband in Deming. We celebrate and admire Lottie’s ability to reinvent herself during the period of our nation’s history when women didn’t have many options. She lived a long, colorful life contributing to those less fortunate around her....
