Ella Smith of Roanoke, Ala., created the Alabama Indestructible Doll. They are now sought-after collectibles.
Not long after Christmas in 1897, little Verna Pitts of Roanoke, Ala., accidentally broke the beautiful China doll she’d received as a gift. Her heart shattered along with the doll. Verna went to her neighbor, Ella Guantt Smith, to ask for help. Could Mrs. Smith fix her doll? Smith had no idea – she’d been an art teacher before marrying Bud Smith – but she was willing to try.
Although the dolls, also known as the Alabama Baby, were only made for a short time, today they are highly collectible.Ella Louise Guantt, sometimes spelled Gantt, was born in 1868 in Georgia but her family moved to Alabama when she was a child, the EOA article said. She earned a degree in art from Lagrange College and, in 1886, she moved to Roanoke in Randolph County to teach at Roanoke Normal College. She quit her job in 1890 to marry S.S. “Bud” Smith.
In 1899, Ella Smith was granted her first patent for the dolls , according to afrom the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office says, “A doll’s head constructed according to this process is practically indestructible.” The Roanoke home of Ella and Bud, who would go on to adopt two children, still stands at 739 Main Street, now the law offices of John Tinney. When doll production outgrew the home, the couple built a factory nearby. At its peak, the factory turned out 8,000 dolls per year. About 10 percent of the dolls manufactured there were Black, a first in the south, according to Johnson’s column. The Black dolls are highly sought after today.
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