Southern Cunning, Harlots & Bootleggers

Eula Mae Dunning was our family matriarch, bootlegger, and speakeasy madame in one of the most notorious and violent establishments in Nortonville, Kentucky during the late 1940s. To put it simply, Eula was captivating. She had a way of drawing people in like moths to a flame. That does not mean she had a charmed life or that it was always easy for her. In fact, I think it was just the opposite. Eula's charisma was forged from the hardships of her life. Her "Moxie" that drew people to her was her greatest shield against the things that hurt her most. It's what kept her humor up when life had dragged her so far down that most people wouldn't know how to tie their own shoes. One hundred and twenty eight years after her birth, people are still talking about her. Her stories are still being told and passed down from generation to generation. It's almost as if Eula worked her roots and weaved her own form of magic and immortality in our family's stories about her. When I first learned of the Nortonville speakeasy, I had romantic images of Eula serving up her homemade hooch, keeping the gamblers in line, raising her children and staying one step ahead of the law. But the truth was not so romantic. I had to ask myself, what did I really know about Eula to start with? I knew she lived through the women's suffrage movement, prohibition, two world wars and the Great Depression. Neither of her two marriages were ideal or even very happy ones. Both of Eula's husbands had long criminal histories with alleged ties to Chicago's dark seedy underbelly. Both marriages were abusive in one way or another. I knew there was much more to Eula's story and much more to the woman herself than what was seen on the surface. I began to wonder what story Eula would now tell if she were able to tell her own story without being penalized by the people and prejudices of her time. What story would she tell if she had no repercussions to fear from either of her two husbands? The more I dug into the Eula's history and the Nortonville murder I realized I had more questions than I started with. What would make a good woman who loved her children and grandchildren so deeply remain silent and complacent when there was not just one, but two sexual predators in their midst? What did Eula's marriages and choices reveal about the women and circumstances who forged her? And perhaps even just as important, what does it reveal about the woman I am and the woman my daughter will become?