Synopses & Reviews
The year was 1919, and the small town of Lusk, Wyoming, was on the verge of an oil boom, ready to explode with an influx of lonely roughnecks and roustabouts. A young entrepreneur calling herself Dell Burke smelled an opportunity. With a nose for business and a soft spot for her neighbors, she soon opened the doors of what would become one of the most famous brothels in the West-the Yellow Hotel. For sixty years this beloved "Lady of Lusk" ran her business with flair and panache, a generous and essential part of this small western town. Even with a solid policy to never open her doors on a Sundayshe felt her customers should be in churchshe was still successful enough to save the town from insolvency during the Great Depression. When she died in 1981 at the age of ninety-three, her estate was valued at over $1 million.
Synopsis
Dell Burke was a political and economic influence on the frontier, but it didn't happen overnight. Thrust into poverty by the untimely end of marriage, spirited Dell Burke pursued adventure and wealth. Alaskan gold and Montana copper mines enticed her. Later, oil strikes in Wyoming drew her to an infamous career as madam of the Yellow Hotel in Lusk, which spanned six decades from 1919-1978.
About the Author
June Willson Read, PhD, draws on her own western heritage and uses personal knowledge of the Wyoming town where Burke built her dynasty to provide context for this book. Read's five-year exploration of Burke's history reveals many facets of the double life that this legendary benefactress led. June currenlty lives in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements; Life and Times of Marie Fisher/Dell Burke; 1. The Innocent Years 1888-1912; 2. Gold Rush Days 1912-1918; 3. Oil Fever 1919-1929; 4. Rough Times on the Prairies 1929-1939; 5. War Years and Recovery 1940-1949; 6. A Frontier Town Grows Up 1950 - 1959; 7. Make Love Not War 1960-1969; 8. The End of an Era 1970-1980; 9. The Estate Sale 1981; 10. The Demise of the Yellow Hotel ; 11. Legends of Dell Burke; 12. Trinkets and Tributes; Notes