Violet Lee Gradwohl

(1901-1972) lived in Lincoln. Entrepreneur, founder of Terri Lee Doll Company in 1946, she maintained the business until 1962, which ranked fifth in production out of more than 300 doll manufacturing companies nationwide; at its height in popularity, orders totaled about 3,000 per week, and the doll's all-plastic body offered about 500 varied costumes and accessories, and included the Patty Jo doll for African-American children; in succeeding years, Terri Lee became a collector's item, and family members revived production of the original doll in 1998. Consult Independent Woman, December 1954, pp. 452-454, 473 and Lincoln Sunday Journal and Star obituary, July 23, 1972, p. C-6 and Lincoln Journal Star, Prime Time Supplement, February 12, 2002, pp. 3-4, 6 and Dolls Magazine, December 2002, pp. 50-53. See also Peggy Wiedman Casper, Fashionable Terri Lee Dolls (Hobby House Press, 1988).

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