Lou Graham (February 9, 1857 – March 11, 1903[1]), born Dorothea Georgine Emile Ohben, was a German-born woman who became famous as the madam of a brothel in what is now the Pioneer Square district of Seattle, Washington, United States.[2][3] She was referred to as the "Queen of the Lava Beds", with "lava beds" referring to the area of tide flats that were filled in with sawdust from the sawmill.[4] She became one of the city's wealthiest citizens before dying in her forties.[2]
^Bill Speidel, Through the Eye of the Needle, Seattle: Nettle Creek, ISBN0-914890-04-2. p. 49. Sources agree on her death date, but some give different birth dates; for example, Priscilla Long's HistoryLink article says 1861 and gives her age at death as 42. M.L. Lyke, in a work of historical fiction, says 43.