“I am trying to keep you alive!” said Kate Elder to Doc Holliday after he yelled at her during an argument saying “You’re an insatiable bitch!- You’ll kill me before the rot does!”1 Katie (Big Nosed) Elder was the wife of the infamous outlaw gunslinger Doc Holliday from the mid 1800’s who died after contracting Tuberculosis at a very young age.2 Katie Elder was money hungry, and she played Doc for his money. She used his amazing skills at card games to her advantage. Even Doc himself once described her as “a leech for money.” It seems Doc knew who she was, but in his own way he still loved her. However, most people, including Doc himself, saw her as someone who used Doc. If this was so, then why did Doc keep her around until he died, instead of leaving her right off the bat?
Kate Elder met Doc after she ran into him after escaping from Jonas Stonebreak, a gunslinger that killed her friend. He took her in and over the years she ended up learning about his early life and how he used to be a dentist before becoming a gunslinger. She also learned that he had tuberculosis, a deadly lung disease that leads to a slow death, which he contracted from his mother at the age of fifteen while treating her for the same disease.3
In her time with Doc she learned about the symptoms of tuberculosis, so she could have a better understanding of his condition in order to be able to help him during the time he had left. She admitted to him many times (and even after his death) how much she loved him, and although he treated her harshly at times, Doc had a way with himself and with words, so that she felt loved and understood by him like no other man before. “He was unlike any other man before, so full of himself and knew how to play the part well.”4 Kate told stories of how she and Doc traveled to many places from Kansas, Colorado, South Dakota, and New Mexico, where they would enter a saloon and challenge any man to try and beat Doc at a game of cards. At first she didn’t like Doc going out and wasting away his life just for money while she was left stranded in the room alone for many hours of the night until Doc returned home drunk and covered in the smell of cigarette smoke. Despite knowing the symptoms of tuberculosis, and after many arguments, she began encouraging his gambling addiction and stood by him while “He ate his life away in drinking and gambling.”5 Everyday she encouraged his other addictions too, to alcohol and to cigarettes. Sometimes while he was gambling she would stick a cigarette in his mouth or order him another drink until he would eventually blackout.6
This went on for many years, until Doc eventually became numb to all the arguments, and decided to leave. Kate, explaining the fight, said “I often let my temper get the better of my common sense, but I misunderstood his bouts of anger when his body betrayed him. He turned to me as a scapegoat.”7 It was not in her interest to ever highlight the fact that he was dying in any of their arguments, but during that last argument, she said “It is not my fault you are dying! I have done my best but you don’t care about what happens to me when you go!”8 In an interview, Kate admitted that, “I failed to see that his fury at himself was taken out on me, as my good health was a constant reminder of his illness.”9 They fought and yelled at each other while Doc flung around clothes to take with him and pushed her onto the bed, where she then tried to seduce him in an attempt to calm him down. Kate explained, “If words didn’t work, maybe seduction will. He put his hands around my throat calling me a whore while I told him I just loved him. Then he kissed me and we made love in that bed.”10 However, the next morning Doc was gone. He left her so he could go die alone in peace and solitude.
Kate hated Doc for leaving, and it wasn’t until years later that she found him again in Tombstone (a small town in Cochise County, Arizona) where he was being wrongly accused of something he didn’t do. This is where it’s believed she “betrayed” him. Doc was being accused of robbing a stagecoach and murdering the driver. Doc’s enemies in Tombstone actually found Kate, got her drunk and forced her to testify against Doc saying he did it. It wasn’t until the next morning, when sober, that Kate told the truth and admitted that she was forced to testify against Doc. When Doc found out what she had done, he never forgave her, although he knew that she didn’t do it intentionally. He just couldn’t come to forgive her for even daring to say it in the first place. Kate said “That was the last time I ever saw Doc before he left Tombstone and died years later.”11
- Doc Holliday, quoted in Jane Candia Coleman, Doc Holliday: Doc Holliday’s Woman (New York: Warner Books, 1995), 77, 79. ↵
- Forest Tennant, “Doc Holliday: A Story of Tuberculosis, Pain, and Self Medication in the Wild West,” New York: Practical Pain Management 12, No.11 (2015): 1-5. ↵
- New Georgia Encyclopedia, 2009, s.v. “Doc Holliday 1881,” by John Dalton Macdonald. ↵
- Katie Elder, quoted in Jane Candia Coleman, Doc Holliday: Doc Holliday’s Woman (New York: Warner Books, 1995), 88. ↵
- New World Encyclopedia, 2016, s.v. “Doc Holliday,” by John Joshua Webb. ↵
- George P. Cosmatos, Tombstone (1881; Tucson, AZ: Kevin Jarre, 1993), DVD. ↵
- Katie Elder, quoted in Jane Candia Coleman, Doc Holliday: Doc Holliday’s Woman (New York: Warner Books, 1995), 87. ↵
- Katie Elder, quoted in Jane Candia Coleman, Doc Holliday: Doc Holliday’s Woman (New York: Warner Books, 1995), 87. ↵
- Katie Elder, quoted in Jane Candia Coleman, Doc Holliday: Doc Holliday’s Woman (New York: Warner Books, 1995), 87. ↵
- Katie Elder, quoted in Jane Candia Coleman, Doc Holliday: Doc Holliday’s Woman (New York: Warner Books, 1995), 88. ↵
- Maggie Van Ostrand, “Doc Holliday and Katie Elder,” Texas: History Studies International Journal of History 10, No. 7 (2018): 1-3. ↵
57 comments
Diego Terrazas
This is quite an odd love story. Despite Doc being an outlaw, I believe he should have left her. Loving somebody that does not love you the same way you do really is not healthy. In addition, Kate was encouraging Doc to do things that will only negatively affect his health. However Doc also had his faults such as taking out his anger on Kate.
Sharriah Martinez
Congrats on your nomination, this title was very interesting and the images were great as well. I really enjoyed the way the article flowed as if it was a story. The quotes used were perfect and added some extra omph to the relationship being described of Kate and Doc. I had never heard of Doc Holiday or Kate Elder previous to this. Thank you for teaching me about Kate and Doc and their interesting lives.
Hali Garcia
Great article. I was hooked from the beginning. The introduction was intense, especially with the dialogue. I think it is interesting to be able to have the dialogue from the actual people. I have never heard of these people before and I like this story. I was shocked at how Kate would push Doc to drinking and smoking because with his condition, I would think she would have done the opposite. But I guess that was just her way to get him to die faster.
Paola Arellano
I really had never heard about this story but I appreciate the story telling that took place. This article even made me want to watch the movie inspired by the characters presented. I am very pleased with how they were portrayed, I don’t know exactly how to interpret the story however. This is because she was called a “whore” for trying to seduce her own husband? It was stated that Kate was money hungry however I was never aware of what bad she did besides encourage Doc’s addictions. She seemed to be tired of being the bad guy so she simply supported him and I can truly see this being valid.
Mariah Garcia
This article was interesting to read because it wasn’t a one person story, there was many different stories of people who were involved that described this couple. It is sad that love was only one sided while the other side was motivated for the fortune. Overall, this article shed light to a couple’s life that I didn’t know about, but now I know about the legend of Doc Holiday.
Tala Owens
The dialogue in this article was intense and very interesting. This article was wild from start to finish, just one crazy thing after the next. These two sounded like a troubled couple and there was a lot of issues they had. It sounded very emotionally and physically exhausting to be in a relationship like that and I’m glad I’ve never experienced anything like this before.
Priscilla Reyes
I agree with my classmates on the dialogue throughout the article being an amazing addition but the article was great as well! I loved the gif used and I appreciate you writing this article. I had never heard this story before and I am now interested in watching the movie. I do not understand the motives behind his wife and why she would resort to drugs and alcohol. I wonder if this was her way of holding on to his attention. Nevertheless, it was a fun article to read that highlights money, men and women of power.
Sarah Uhlig
This is such an interesting article about a very interesting couple. This big nosed woman was known to be one to truly take advantage of someone, even in the life or death scenario. Her actions and consistency was very well done, but it is so horrible that someone would just be with someone for the money. People like Doc shouldn’t have to die with someone who didn’t necessarily love them as much as they loved them back.
Antonio Coffee
This was a great article that described something I never knew before. I had never heard of Kate Elder before reading this article. It was weird to hear their relationship described. He was definitely abusive and that most likely stemmed from him not coming to terms with his illness. What really threw me off was that she was encouraging him to do things that would be dangerous to health.
Nathalie Figueroa Soto
This article had a really unique introduction, which instantly had me hooked onto the rest of the story. The complicated love story of Doc and Kate was interesting to read about. The two were different in many ways, they fought and argued often, but in the end the two of them still loved each other. Doc choosing to leave in the end to die in solitude was hard to read about, and I can’t imagine the pain of then feeling like you’ve been “betrayed” by the person you love most, as well.