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Mary Louise Cecilia "Texas" Guinan (January 12, 1884 – November 5, 1933) was an American saloon keeper, actress, and entrepreneur. Guinan was one of five siblings born in Waco, Texas to Irish-Canadian immigrants Michael and Bessie (née Duffy) Guinan. She attended parochial school at the Loretta Convent in Waco. When she was 16 years old, her family moved to Denver, Colorado where she was in amateur stage productions and played the organ in church. Guinan married John Moynahan, a cartoonist for the Rocky Mountain News, on December 2, 1904. The union was childless. Moynahan's career took... MORE

Mary Louise Cecilia "Texas" Guinan (January 12, 1884 – November 5, 1933) was an American saloon keeper, actress, and entrepreneur. Guinan was one of five siblings born in Waco, Texas to Irish-Canadian immigrants Michael and Bessie (née Duffy) Guinan. She attended parochial school at the Loretta Convent in Waco. When she was 16 years old, her family moved to Denver, Colorado where she was in amateur stage productions and played the organ in church. Guinan married John Moynahan, a cartoonist for the Rocky Mountain News, on December 2, 1904. The union was childless. Moynahan's career took them to Chicago, where Guinan studied music before divorcing him and starting her career as a professional singer. She toured regional vaudeville with some success, but became known less for her singing than for her entertaining "wild west"-related patter. In 1906 she moved to New York City, where she found work as a chorus girl before making a career for herself in national Vaudeville and in New York theater productions. In 1917, "Texas" Guinan made her film debut in a silent film called The Wildcat. She became the United States' first movie cowgirl, nicknamed "The Queen of the West". She claimed LESS