Queer Places:
Beehive Confectionary/Twilite Lounge, 28 S St, Salt Lake City, UT 84103
Beehive Confectionary/Twilite Lounge, 347 E 200 S, Salt Lake City, UT 84111
Mount Olivet Cemetery, 1342 E 500 S, Salt Lake City, UT 84102

Maria P. Cairo (1913-1985) was the daughter of Peter Elias and Anna Zembros Cairo (original surname was Karakitsos). Other than working for her uncles at the Beehive Confectionary, Cairo was at the cosmetic counter at Auerbach’s, on the corner of State Street and 300 South. A former customer, Tanny Stayner, remembered: I had worked with Maria at Keith O'Brien's on Main Street when I was sixteen years old and attending the University of Utah. When she went over to Auerbach's, every time my mother and I would go in to shop, we'd see her. In fact, we'd always just go and wait for her by the counter toward the front of the store on Third South. Maria was interesting, exotic and slender. She had this wonderful black hair that she did up in a bun in the back of her head, and she'd tuck into her chignon the most unusual combs. Some were exquisite, shiny ornaments on the end of long hairpins. Others were elaborate mantillas made of celluloid. When they rose high above her head so you could see them from a distance, they were so striking. Maria was Greek, had very dark eyes that took everything in and was striking to look at. She wore very long earrings and heavy jewelry. She was dramatic. My mother and I loved to talk to her. She would show us different ways to do things: put a little white under your eyebrows to highlight your eyes and on the bottoms. And she had a type of makeup she sold us that was creamy with a kind of sheen that made your face look dewy and fresh—never overdone. It might have been one of their brands. My mother and I wore it all the time, and then they stopped making it, which was so sad. After Auerbach’s closed, she worked at the Castleton's up on Foothill Boulevard.

Beehive Confectionary was a lesbian bar active from 1915 to the 1960s. The Beehive Confectionary opened about 1915 by Turkish native Emmanuel M. Cozakos. At the same time, a Greek family, brothers George and John Cairo and spouses, owned and ran a confectionary and cigar shop nearby on West Broadway Street. A third brother, Peter E. Cairo was a local interior decorator and painter - and married to Anna Zampos of Peraeus, Greece. They were the sons of Elias Karakitsos and Maria Russos. By 1922 George and John had bought the Beehive from Cozakos. Peter and Anna's daughter, Maria P. Cairo went to university in 1930. After graduating, she began working as a waitress at her uncles' sandwich store, the Beehive Confectionary. She was a lesbian and her circle of lesbian friends became regular clients in the late 30s, early 40s. The name was changed to the Twilite Lounge in 1947 to reflect its twilight clientele. In the 1960s, the bar moved to East 200 South. The lesbian clientele initially followed the move but it was out of the regular gay bar district of upper State Street, so it soon lost its lesbian customers and became a straight dive bar.

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• Auerbach's The Store that Performs What It Promises By Eileen Hallet Stone · 2018