The earliest black doll made by Terris Lee.Inc was Bonnie Lou. She was renamed Patty-Jo in 1947 at which time her hairstyle was changed to that of the cartoon character, Patty Jo, making positive identification of these dolls much simpler. Patty Jo is a cartoon character created by Zelda �Jackie� Ormes, the first nationally syndicated female African-American cartoonist. Jackie created a three dimensional form of her cartoon prot�g�, Patty-Jo, into a hard plastic doll which was manufactured by the Terri Lee Doll Co. in 1947. Jackie had to teach the artist the proper way to paint Patty-Jo because she was molded from Lee �Bonnie Lou doll. Patty Jo dolls have a slightly larger mouth, dramatic eyebrows, and more dramatic eyelashes. Benjie (boy doll) dolls were painted to match Patty-Jo�s features.

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