Who is Dora Flood from Cannery Row and what is their importance?

Dora Flood is the large, orange-haired, strong-spirited owner/operator of a twelve-girl whorehouse confusingly named the Bear Flag Restaurant, Flood runs it as a respectable business. She sells no hard liquor, charges an honest set price, and forbids vulgar language. She is careful to be more law abiding and philanthropic than anyone else in Cannery Row, lest she be shut down. She takes care of her aging "girls", feeding them after they cease to be productive. In the business for fifty years, she is loved by the intelligent, the learned, and the kind, but hated by "married spinsters" whose husbands visit the institution through the back door.