Dorothy Baker

Dorothy Josephine Baker (September 30, 1915 – May 14, 1973), also known as Big Dorothy, was an American madam in Helena, Montana in the mid-20th century. She ran a brothel officially known as "Dorothy's Rooms" on Last Chance Gulch in Helena from the mid-1950s until it was shut down in a police raid in 1973. While running the brothel, she also donated to many charities, including churches and law enforcement programs, making her generally popular among the local citizens. Personal life She was born Dorothy Putnam, though she also used two different middle names, "Ione" and "Josephine." Baker signed her name as "Dodie" in her Great Falls High School yearbook in 1933, and became known as "Big Dorothy" during her working years. Her nickname most likely was due to her weight, which was estimated at . Speculation is that she adopted Josephine as her middle name in honor of one of Helena's best-known madams of the late 1800s, Josephine "Chicago Joe" Airey. Legend says she took the surname Baker with inspiration from an Eddy’s Bakery truck. Baker had an older sister, Margaret, who had a son and daughter, for whom Dorothy paid their college tuition. She also had a brother. While Margaret was a devout woman who considered becoming a nun, she was close to Dorothy in spite of their different life choices and would bring her family from Great Falls to Helena for visits about 4 times a year. Dorothy had one known child, a girl, with a client of her establishment. For reasons unknown, Dorothy abandoned the girl at a post office when she was three. The girl knew the identity of her mother, and maintained a distant relationship throughout her life, even introducing her children briefly. Baker died on Monday morning, May 14, 1973, less than a month after a police raid shut down her brothel, and 10 hours after being admitted to a hospital in Great Falls with an acute illness. She had diabetes and also was sick with the flu at the time of the raid, but her actual cause of death was unspecified. Her death occurred one week before her court hearing. Most of Baker's belongings were auctioned off after she died but some are owned by the Montana Historical Society.