Myra Maybelle Shirley Reed Starr, better known as Belle Starr, was a Missouri-born outlaw figure with a regional connection through Jasper County and Carthage.
Known forMyra Maybelle Shirley Reed Starr, better known as Belle Starr, was a Missouri-born outlaw figure with a regional connection through Jasper County and Carthage.
Before Joplin and Murphysburg existed Myra Maybelle Shirley Reed Starr, better known as Belle Starr roamed the areas. She was born near Carthage, Missouri, on February 5, 1848. She became one of the most widely remembered outlaw figures associated with the post-Civil War borderlands, although her strongest documented local connection is to Jasper County and Carthage rather than to Murphysburg itself.
Belle Starr's life is often tangled with legend. The safer historical framing for this profile is to present her as a regional figure whose reputation was shaped by family ties, Reconstruction-era violence, outlaw networks, and later popular storytelling. She died on February 3, 1889, in Indian Territory, two days before her forty-first birthday.