They began producing Raggedy Ann dolls in the loft of their home in Norwalk, Conn. Johnny had wisely patented the design of the doll made by his wife in 1915. He submitted them to a publisher, and in 1918 his first stories were published using his own illustrations. This sweet tradition lives on in Raggedy dolls created today.Īfter Marcella’s tragic death as a teenager, her grieving father wrote down those Raggedy Ann stories as a tribute to her memory. The family legend says a candy conversation heart was sewn into her fabric body. Somewhere along the way, he must have invented the story of how Raggedy Ann got her heart. He began telling his daughter a new Raggedy Ann adventure every night. The little rag doll sparked the imagination of Marcella’s father, who was an accomplished cartoonist.

His poems were called “The Raggedyman” and “Little Orphan Annie.” Both were favorites of Marcella. Raggedy Ann’s name came from the characters in two poems written by a family friend, James Whitcomb Riley. Marcella’s mother, Myrtle, made clothes for the little doll from patriotic fabrics of red and blue, including a white apron.

She wanted the doll to have a face, so her father, Johnny Gruelle, painted on big black eyes, a triangle-shaped nose and a wide grin. In the early 1900s, Raggedy Ann was a faceless rag doll, found in her grandmother’s attic by a little girl named Marcella. I must rectify this omission right now - I’ll mail them a copy of this column. Her name was in a story that one of them was reading, and she asked about the doll. I was shocked to discover that my granddaughters, ages 13, 11 and 9, have no idea about the Raggedy Ann doll.

Kim gruelle