The late Lee Middleton, an award winning artist, was an inspiration to so many. Gifted in many ways, she is truly the revered pioneer of the realistic baby doll genre. Her amazing gift for sculpting expression,combined with her vision of creating lovable baby dolls in soft velvety vinyl....something that changed the doll industry forever. Gone were the cold, hard, expensive porcelain dolls, replaced by her soft vinyl babies.

Lee & husband Lloyd started the Lee Middleton Doll Company in Ohio in the early 80's, hired local residents to create Lee's precious babies for collectors who adored them. Early editions selling an astounding 50,000 dolls. The rapid growth of the business found the operation housed in 9 seperate buildings in 1988. The volume demanded expansion & consolidation, so in 1989 they built a 37,000 square foot facility in Belpre. Unfortunately, the tremendous pressure & expense caused the breakup of their marriage and later forced the business into bankruptcy.

photo of Lee

The flagging company was later purchased by an investment firm and restructured into the Lee Middleton Original Doll Company. Lee initially had a licensing agreement with them to continue to produce her precious babies. After she passed away her heirs continued the arrangement for a few years, until the company decided not to renew the contract. That company, now called the Middleton Doll Company, continues to produce baby dolls, now made in Asia, using the sculpts created by Artist Reva Schick.

Sadly, Lee passed away far too young in 1997, at only 56. During her career she developed artist sculpted vinyl dolls, lifelike vinyl baby coloring, weighted doll bodies with relistic wobbly heads. Pretty amazing acheivements for a country girl from Ohio. According to her daughter Brynn, "Lee always wanted to give the world a gift with her babies. She wanted themto comfort you, bring you joy, remind you of someone special, make you laugh, and give you something to love.

Brynn, a doll artist herself, was saddened by the decision to stop producing Lee's unique sculpts and searched around the doll industry to see if there was someone else who believed in Lees babies. She found Linda Rick & Richard Hay. Linda added her unique talents, creativity & experience to recreating these dolls, and they've created a new company called Lee Middleton Moments. Brynn is a spokesperson for the line and she attends shows when she can, doing signing & meeting collectors who also love her Mothers dolls. Brynn will also be adding her own doll artistry into the company, creating new dolls to join those of her Mother.

We are pleased to offer these dolls to our collector customers. Now, the adorable dolls from legendary Artist Lee Middleton can once again be "the babies that love you back".

Excerpts from Dollreader Magazine February 2006..