Lulu Mae Eads, nee Johnson (~1877 – 1918)
Lulu Mae Johnson was born in Alabama.1) She came to the Yukon in 1898 with a troop of performers.2) She was brought into the country to work as a dance hall girl by a musician named Lopez3) [Edward Pena Lopez]. Eads worked in various dance halls until 1904 when she married saloon and dance-hall owner Murray S. Eads. They ran the Flora Dora dance hall for about ten years. In 1907, the NWMP knew of twenty known prostitutes who had rooms in the Flora Dora.4)
The police were trying to stop the sale of alcohol during the temperance era. The Orpheus went out of business, but the Flora Dora continued for some time longer. In January 1908, Mrs. Eads, the licensee, was convicted of selling alcohol to dance hall women. She was fined $50 and costs and told that unless the dance hall was closed the license would be cancelled, and she complied with the order.5) The Eads later changed the hotel name to the Royal Alexandra when it became more respectable.6)
In 1918, Lulu Mae and Murray Eads booked passage on the Princess Sophia, their first trip outside in twenty years, and they were drowned when the ship sank in the Lynn Canal. The couple had drawn up their last will and testament only days before taking passage.7)