With a personality like Madame Sherri, tales abound, each more exaggerated than the next. Did she run a brothel and hobnob with Al Capone and Supreme Court Justice Stone? Extremely unlikely, but she did like to party and loved being the center of attention.

She almost always used cash. She liked to carry it in a roll tucked in one or two places. It would either be held securely in her bare bosom or strapped under a garter belt on her otherwise naked thigh. Whenever it was needed, she would produce it with such a flair that it could hardly be unnoticed. It seemed she took perverse delight in shocking as many of the local merchants as possible. 

Her chain-smoking habit was legendary. She was a believer in conservation of matches. She would light her first Fatima cigarette of the day with a match, and then ignite each succeeding one off its predecessor. Her cigarette holders were exquisite and long, very, very, long.

Some of the townspeople got used to her eccentricity.  During one of the local Town Hall square dances, Madame and entourage made an unexpected, grand entrance through the front doors. Not to be upstaged, the band started playing Jingle Bells, much to the delight of the audience.

Her concept for the Castle was strictly in her head. Some of the contractors had difficulty with her changing her mind on what appeared to be a whim. Some didn’t last a day. While others toughed it out being grateful for the work and with some appreciation of the fact that she frequently delivered their directions in her flapping fur coat with nothing on beneath it.  It is no wonder, that she had a statue of Aphrodite erected in a large round pond outside the Castle.

Poverty and the crushing discovery that her precious Castle was destroyed by vandals, finally took the spark out of her eyes. Those who only knew her in her later years, have a hard time believing that such a little woman would have caused such a big stir. 

More information and pictures can be found in our Noted Citizens Section:  Madame Sherri