Genesee Country Magazine Greatest Hits. Picture a prostitute. But a tiny, pudgy, apron-garbed grandmother as Queen of the Night? That vision is left to reality. Many people around Batavia tell stories about Edna Gruber, the city's most famous madam. Tales about her generosity, her compassion, her love of children. Her foul mouth, her year in jail, her link to the Mafia. Edna Miller, who plans to write a book about her notorious grandmother, does not want to hear other people's stories.
Those are their stories! They're not my stories. Edna Miller's memories of her grandmother are much more personal. Much more painful. Much more mixed into a pot pourri of emotions that at age 63 Miller is still trying to temper, and at times rationalize. Forty-three years after madam grandmother's death, Miller is still confused.
Unsure whether to condemn or accept the woman who gave her everything Consequently, it's difficult to decide if this is another story about Edna Gruber, the whore house madam, or Edna Miller, the granddaughter she raised within the halls of prostitution.
Perhaps it is simply a story of a Genesee Country family. Another story of how children are manipulated by events, or, more graphically, how children are powerless to control the events that hammer in around them. Edna Gruber started scrubbing floors in a barroom after quitting school when she was Born in Buffalo July 28, , she came from a very deprived background, Miller said.
Their daughter, Florence, was born a year later in It's a mystery how Edna Gruber got into prostitution, Miller said. In fact, she knows nothing about her grandmother from to Supposedly, Gruber was determined to never allow a woman to go through that experience. Gruber purchased Batavia's Central Hotel in and renamed it the Palace.
