Tragic Fates: Every Young Woman Who Died Too Soon on Yellowstone

Fitting the franchise’s themes of tragedy and grief, many female Yellowstone characters died young. There are three shows so far in Taylor Sheridan’s neo-Western franchise: the original Yellowstone series starring Kevin Costner as John Dutton, and two prequel series that tell the stories of the Dutton family tree. In 1883, starring Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, James and Margaret Dutton embark on a journey along the Oregon Trail in search of a better life. As they soon discover, the road west is paved with blood.

1923 also follows the trials of the Prohibition era Dutton family, introducing Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren as Jacob and Cara Dutton. The Yellowstone power couple braves a financial depression in Montana, staving off those who want to take their ranch. In both prequels, we witness events that support a claim made by Kelly Reilly’s Beth Dutton in Yellowstone’s series premiere. In the pilot, Beth says, “women in this family don’t live much past 40 anyway,” to her brother Jamie (Wes Bentley), and 1883 and 1923 prove that John’s daughter was right. Here are the Dutton women who, sadly, died young.

6Claire Dutton

Claire Dutton Died In Her 40s In 1883

The first Dutton woman who died young in Yellowstone’s complete timeline is Claire Dutton (Dawn Olivieri), James Dutton’s sister. Claire reluctantly intended to travel with the rest of the family on their Oregon Trail expedition in 1883. However, James’ sister never left Texas, where their journey began. Consumed by grief after tragically losing her daughter, Claire shoots herself by the side of the river in 1883, not wanting to live without her daughter, who was yet another Dutton woman who died young.

Claire’s daughter, Mary Abel (Emma Malouff), was killed in a gunfight. The incident occurred after a group of men came by the wagon train’s camp, so their horses could drink from the river. Claire doesn’t take to the crude strangers well, eventually throwing rocks at them. Unfortunately, Claire’s attack catalyzes the men to attack their group, killing several party members. As Claire tells James before her death, the mother had outlived all seven of her children, but was still young when she died.

5Margaret Dutton

Margaret Dutton Died In Her 40s In 1894

Another character who braved the Oregon Trail, Margaret Dutton, also died at a young age. That said, Faith Hill’s matriarch survives the family’s journey, settling with her husband and son, John (Audie Rick), in Montana in 1883. However, as Elsa Dutton (Isabel May) explains in the premiere of 1923, Elsa’s mother died in 1894, just a decade after the family settled in Paradise Valley. The earliest Dutton family undoubtedly faced some of the gravest conditions in the ten years they lived on the Dutton Ranch, and Margaret’s death is proof.

In 1923, Elsa tells us that Jacob Dutton found Margaret frozen in a snowdrift. Margaret had written a letter to Jacob, James’s brother, after her husband’s death. We learn in a Yellowstone flashback that James died in 1893, attacked by horse thieves and dying of a gunshot wound. Margaret had written to her husband’s brother to save her and the ranch, but Margaret Dutton was already dead when Jacob arrived. Dying approximately in her late 40s, Margaret still had a lot of life ahead of her.

4Elsa Dutton

Elsa Dutton Died At 18 In 1883

One of the youngest Dutton women, Elsa Dutton, died at the end of 1883. Elsa’s death is the paramount event of the saga, with her fate catalyzing the family’s settling in Paradise Valley. An infection killed Elsa after she was shot with a poison arrow, which had been dipped in manure so that the blow would be fatal. Despite her mother cauterizing her wound and taking her to the doctor at the fort, nothing could medically be done for Elsa with the technology of her time, and Elsa’s death in 1883 caps the saga.

Taylor Sheridan predetermined the Yellowstone season 5 finale in a harrowing prequel journey that followed the Dutton family on the Oregon Trail.

After becoming an adult on the Oregon Trail, Elsa was only 18 years old when she died. That said, as Shea Brennan (Sam Elliott) notes to James, Elsa lived a robust life despite her young age. A fan-favorite character, Elsa Dutton, returned in 1923 to narrate the series, which would introduce her brother, Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar), 40 years later. While Elsa’s death was perhaps the saddest fate in Yellowstone, it anchored the entire franchise, with James’ daughter picking the location of the family’s heirloom homestead.

3Emma Dutton

Emma Dutton Died In Her 40s In 1923

While Elsa’s little brother, John, who is just five when their family travels on the Oregon Trail, lives for 40 years after their journey, he dies in 1923 when Banner Creighton (Jerome Flynn) attacks the family. After her husband’s death, Emma Dutton (Marley Shelton) shoots herself in the house, not wanting to live without him. Emma’s fate has some crossover with what happened to Claire. However, sadly, Emma Dutton still had a young son, Jack (Darren Mann), at the time of her death.

Emma was stunned by her husband’s death. Sadly, though, Emma’s death causes her son, Jack, to lose two of his parents. Jack’s sweetheart, Elizabeth Strafford (Michelle Randolph), also loses her father, Bob Strafford (Tim DeKay), in Banner’s attack. However, Elizabeth’s mother responds by leaving Montana for good, accustomed to a life in Eastern cities such as Boston. Emma sadly makes a different choice, leaving the mother dead in her 40s, dying at the same age, approximately, as Claire and Margaret.

2Alex Dutton

Alex Dutton Died At 24 In 1923

Doubtlessly, one of the saddest deaths in the Yellowstone franchise, Alex Dutton (Julia Schlaepfer), dies at the end of 1923. Spencer Dutton’s wife succumbs to complications from hypothermia in 1923 season 2. She incurred the condition after spending an extended amount of time in Montana’s unforgiving cold, her friends’ motorcar stranded on the side of the road. One of the youngest Dutton women to die young, Alex was a mere 23 years old at the time of her death, but like Elsa, she had lived a robust life.

Alex met Spencer in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1923 season 1, and their romance is a highlight of the Yellowstone franchise. Sadly, Alex’s death is one of the most significant events of 1923, her fate bringing Taylor Sheridan’s tale of star-crossed lovers to a tragic conclusion. At the end of 1923, Elsa Dutton pays a little homage to the sister-in-law she never met, saying, “Alexandra Dutton was born on April Fool’s Day, 1901, in Oxfordshire, England. And laid to rest March 29, 1924.” Alex died just a couple of days shy of her 24th birthday.

1Evelyn Dutton

Evelyn Dutton Died In Her 40s In 1997

One of the most shocking deaths in the Yellowstone franchise, John Dutton’s wife, Evelyn Dutton (Gretchen Mol), also died young. Evelyn appears to be in her 30s or 40s in the Yellowstone season 1 flashback that shows her death. Evelyn goes out with a young Beth and Kayce to ride horses, and when something scares the horses, Evelyn’s horse bucks her off, and her spine breaks as she hits the ground. While Beth runs off for help, Kayce stays behind and witnesses his mother’s death.

Beth Dutton has perhaps the most iconic repertoire of quotes in the entire Yellowstone franchise, as John Dutton’s daughter isn’t one to hold back.

Despite living in the modern era, Evelyn’s death is just as brutal as the other women of the Dutton family tree. Sadly, John’s wife blamed Beth for her death and was cruel to her before and after the incident that caused it. Like Elsa or Alex Dutton, Evelyn is alive after the incident that caused her death, and has a short time to reflect before passing on. Evelyn was just middle-aged when she died in the late 1990s, dying on March 30, 1997, and only appearing in Yellowstone during flashbacks.