Edna Grimes

Edna Semphroch is the elder daughter of Nellie Semphroch. She was conceived when Nellie, a prostitute, had sex with one of her paying customers. Nellie was determined to prevent Edna from following her path and to this end decided that her daughter should remain a virgin until marriage. However, the promiscuous Edna was equally determined to subvert her mother's wishes and ultimately lost her virginity to Confederate Lieutenant Nicholas Kincaid, whom she nearly married.

Edna worked in her mother's coffee house in Washington, DC before and during the Great War. She was decorated with the Order of Remembrance, Second Class, for assisting in her mother's espionage on behalf of the United States, but in fact did very little to advance her country's cause.

After the war, she married US Great War veteran Merle Grimes. They had two children, Armstrong and Annie Grimes.

After her mother's death in 1937, Edna took over the coffee house along with her much younger half-sister, Clara Jacobs.