in the west. She initiated a massive letter-writing campaign by students to Senators and other Congress members. On September 8, 1959, the campaign resulted in the federal legislature passing Public Law 86-234, which banned the poisoning of watering holes frequented by wild equids and the use of air and land vehicles in hunting and capturing free-roaming horses for sale and slaughter. This became known as the Wild Horse Annie Act. Passage of the Wild Horse Annie Act did not alleviate the concerns of free-roaming horse advocates, who continued to lobby for federal rather than state control over the disposition of free-roaming horses. Since most horses in the desert regions were recently descended from ranchers' horses, ownership of the free-roaming herds was contentious, and ranchers continued to use airplanes to gather them. Johnston continued her campaign, and in 1971, the 92nd United States Congress unanimously passed the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. It was signed into law by then-President Richard Nixon on December 15, 1971. The act prohibited capture, injury, or disturbance of free-roaming horses and burros. Legacy In 1959, Johnston was featured in Time magazine. The 1961 western The Misfits, based on a script by Arthur Miller, the last film of Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe and also starring Montgomery Clift, portrayed a horse roundup of the sort Johnston had protested; in the film, Monroe's character becomes disgusted with the method, which leads to a climactic clash between the characters. Johnston herself appeared in the Robert McCahon 1973 western Running Wild as herself, starring alongside Lloyd Bridges and Dina Merrill. Johnston died at age 65 of lung cancer in Reno, Nevada on June 27, 1977. She is buried alongside her parents, husband and brother in the Mountain View Cemetery in Reno. In March 2011, Wendie Malick was set to star and produce Wild Horse Annie, for Hallmark Channel for summer 2012. Betty White was set to star in a Wild Horse Annie TV movie, after The Betty White Show (1977 TV series) was cancelled. References Further reading Marguerite Henry (1966). Mustang. Wild Spirit of the West. Chicago: Rand McNally & Company. (children's lit) David Phillips (2017). “Wild Horse Country: The History, Myth, and Future of the Mustang.” W. W. Norton & Co. Alan J. Kania (2012). "Wild Horse Annie: Velma Johnston and her Fight to Save the Mustang." University of Nevada Press. Deanne Stillman (2008). "Mustang: