Belle Brezing Was Lexington, Kentucky’s Most Successful Madam

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With razor sharp wit and a keen eye for business, Belle Brezing (1860 – 1940) clawed her way out of humble beginnings and eventually claimed her space as Lexington’s most successful Madam. Belle Brezing’s reputation was nationally known and served as the inspiration for the Belle Watling character in Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind.

Belle Brezing’s Early Life & Marriage

Belle Brezing was born June 16, 1860 as Mary Belle Cox, the second child of Sarah Ann Cox, a sex worker and dressmaker. Sarah married a saloon owner named George Brezing, whose name Belle adopted. The marriage was riddled with abuse, infidelity, and drunkenness, leading to divorce in 1866.

In 1871, Hester Brezing married and left home. One year later, 12-year-old Belle Brezing began a 2 year relationship with a 36-year-old Italian man named Dionesio Mucci. Belle Brezing had three sexual partners by the time she was fifteen: Dionesio Mucci, John Andrew Cook, and James Kenney. Belle Brezing’s third union was a marriage to James Kenney in 1875. The Lexington Daily Press mocked the couple and Belle’s reputation. The marriage was short-lived. James Kenny left town 9 days after the body of John Andrew Cook was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head outside of Belle Brezing’s back gate. Police ruled John Andrew Cook’s death a suicide, although local papers claimed it was murder.

There’s no archival evidence to prove that Belle Brezing and James Kenny ever communicated after his departure, but their daughter Daisy May was born in March 1876. Belle Brezing’s mother, Sarah Ann, died 2 months later, leaving her daughter and granddaughter, Daisy May, homeless. A neighbor, Mrs. Barnett, kindly took custody of Daisy May, and Belle Brezing became a sex worker.

Although she never returned to her mother’s custody, Daisy May received financial support from Belle Brezing for the rest of her life. As a toddler, Daisy May was diagnosed with developmental disabilities and, at Belle Brezing’s request and financing, was enrolled in a private institution in Newport, Kentucky.

Belle Brezing’s “Bawdy” Houses

After her mother passed, Belle Brezing was transient for 2 years before moving into Lexington’s most famous upscale brothel, owned by Jennie Hill. After two years in Jennie Hill’s house, Belle Brezing opened her first brothel at 314 N Upper Street. Her second house opened in 1883 at 194 N Upper Street. In 1889, moral reformers went after vice in major cities across the country and championed to crack down specifically on sex work. Belle Brezing was indicted for “keeping a bawdy house,” a charge pardoned by then-governor Luke Blackburn.

Belle Brezing’s most famous house opened in 1891 at 59 Megowan Street using a loan from Philadelphia millionaire William Singerly. The Megowan house attracted national clientele as men traveled to Lexington for the horse racing industry and other forms of vice. The Megowan house caught fire in 1895, but was rebuilt to get national attention during the Spanish-American war as soldiers stationed in Lexington frequented Belle Brezing’s place.

Belle Brezing’s Retirement & Death

Belle Brezing’s brothel didn’t survive the temperance movement in 1915 when anti-vice policies closed down all brothels on the hill. Later developing a morphine addiction from the pain of uterine cancer, she lived the rest of her life in the Megowan house. Belle Brezing died on August 11, 1940 the age of 80.