QUEEN CLEO

"Drinking rum and coca-cola..." The Andrews Sisters knew what they were singing about, as rum and Coca-Cola are a winning combination. But during prohibition rum was banned along with all other alcohol. Gertrude "Cleo" Lythgoe, "Queen of the Bahamas" ruled rum running for a brief period in the 1920s, in a turban and snake bracelets no less. Gertrude Lythgoe, born in Bowling Green, Kentucky in 1888 lived a hard life as the youngest of 10 children. As a young woman she found work as a stenographer at a British liquor importers in London.

Gertrude suggestion the company move to Nassau in the British territory of the Bahamas. Prohibition was a profitable era for women entrepreneurs. Women would make liquor at home - moonshine, bathtub gin - then pay men to "run" it for them, transporting the liquor by boat from islands to the coast of the United States. Gertrude's liquor was made in real liquor producing facilities. Gertrude sold her liquor to Bahamian citizens, who then ran the liquor to the U.S., so Gertrude technically did not disobey U.S. law.

Gertrude was tall, thin, and beautiful. With her dark good looks she was called Cleo for her resemblance to Cleopatra. She often wore turbans, dangling earrings and bracelets featuring snake motifs. Gertrude's alcohol business made her very wealthy, but her gender made her suspect amongst the male-dominated field. Gertrude had no problem pulling a pistol on any man who said she didn't belong in the world of liquor trade. Gertrude left liquor in 1926. She felt jinxed because one of her boats sank and she was arrested for for illegally selling whiskey in the United States. She moved to Detroit and ran a car rental business for 20 years. She published an autobiography in 1964. Gertrude Lythgoe died in 1974, a forgotten relic of an alcohol-less era gone by.

SOURCES ~ 

Baird, Sarah. Meet the Swashbuckling Female Rumrunners Who Ran Prohibition. Saveur, 2 July 2015.

Gertrude Lythgoe. Wikipedia.

Richardson,Vanessa, host. "Queen of the Rum Row - Gertrude Lythgoe. PT 1 \ PT 2." Female Criminals, Parcast, 22 and 29 May 2019.