Kuki's Redresses, Wig, and Dr. King

Kuki by Annette Himstedt is shown in a prototype headshot in the above photo.  My doll entered my collection the year of release, 2003.

Kuki wears her original clothing, headscarf, and leather sandals.

Not long after taking the above photo, which is included in my second black-doll reference book, Black Dolls a Comprehensive Guide to Celebrating, Collecting, and Experiencing the Passion, I removed Kuki's raggamuffin-looking clothing, headscarf, and shoes to redress her.

Kuki wears a Lloyd Middleton romper with white sandals.  Her other doll friends are Georgia by Heidi Ott, Carolyn by Helen Kish, and Hollie by Katja Schneider and Ruth Kunz.

As illustrated immediately above, Kuki's redresses have included Lloyd Middleton doll fashions made to fit baby dolls and other 22- to 25-inch dolls.  She has also enjoyed wearing dresses that were made for her by my friend, Debra R.

In this photo, Kuki was dressed in a stars-and-stripes-themed dress sewn by Debra R.  "America" is spelled out on the bodice.

Kuki wore this Lloyd Middleton doll fashion until her most recent redress.

The blue calico-print Lloyd Middleton fashion above was not a very flattering look on Kuki because it was made for a chubby baby doll, which she is not.  Nonetheless, she wore it until I decided to dress her in another dress that was made by my friend several years ago that Kuki had worn prior to wearing the calico-print dress.

After redressing Kuki in this yellow floral-print dress again and attempting to straighten out her bangs, her wig, which she holds in her hand, shifted!  The original glue had weakened!

Poor Kuki was only temporarily bald.

 Aleene's Tacky Glue Fix

I used Aleene's Tacky Glue to reglue the wig onto Kuki's head.

Originally, the glue had been placed by the doll maker only around Kuki's head, none elsewhere.  I decided to apply glue all over the head as shown above. (In hindsight, this was not a good idea because the mohair of the wig is sparsely applied to the netting and some of the glue almost seeped through!)

After the wig was in place, I tied a headscarf around Kuki's wig to hold the edges down while the glue dried overnight.

  

End result:  The glue is set and Kuki holds a doll that wears a matching dress.

Kuki holds 1998 Easter Sunday Wendy #21513, whose original tagged Madame Alexander dress is made from identical fabric as the fabric my friend used for Kuki's dress.   I still find the fact that Debra was able to find matching fabric 10 years after the Madame Alexander doll was made to be amazing.  Kuki's dress and  Easter Sunday Wendy were a gift from my friend in 2008.

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Today, the third Monday in January, we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday.  Happy heavenly birthday, Dr. King!  A previously published tribute to Dr. King can be read here.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday and 1/6 Scale x2

Born January 15, 1929, Martin Luther King, Jr., Baptist minister, orator, nonviolent activist, champion of the US Civil Rights Movement, winner of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, is the first African American with a national holiday in his honor.  The floating holiday, celebrated on the third Monday in January, around the time of Dr. King's actual day of birth, was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1983.  First celebrated in 1986, the holiday was initially met with resistance by some states.  All 50 states celebrated the holiday for the first time in 2000.  

At age 39, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was fatally cut down by an assassin's bullets on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee.  He was there to support a sanitation workers' strike.  James Earl Ray received a 99-year prison sentence for King's murder.

Dr. King's likeness has been captured in playscale by DID Corporation with two figures shown below.

DID 1/6 MLK Martin Luther King Jr Expo Limited Box Set retails for around $250.

The second DID MLK figure (shown in the above two images) includes a white podium and other accessories.  It retails for around $150. 

Read more about Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. here, where there are also videos featuring people who knew him.

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No Dolls! Reminiscing MLK's Vision

Age 13, dressed for church, waiting for Mama to get ready for our departure, I watched TV to pass the time and listened to a replayed snippet of Dr. King's "I've Been to the Mountaintop," speech (his last one) thinking he must have known his time here was almost over when his emotional, prophetic words of having been to the mountaintop and seen The Promised Land resounded in my ears.  This was Sunday, April 7, 1968, three days after Dr. King was murdered by assassin's bullets fueled by fear, hatred, and unwillingness to acknowledge the rights of all Americans according to the Declaration of Independence, had "all" actually meant all in the following passage:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

— United States Declaration of Independence, 1776

Dr. King's assassination was just too much for a 13-year-old to comprehend. 




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Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Initial efforts by Congressman John Conyers, Jr. immediately post the April 4, 1968, assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were followed by combined efforts of countless others for a national MLK holiday.  Finally, on November 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed the bill into law and the first official Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was observed on the third Monday of January 1986.  (Time Magazine)

Always keeping this blog doll-related, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has a holiday but very few dolls honor this remarkable, selfless man.

As a result, doll tributes in my collection of Dr. King total two:

Martin Luther King, Jr., Our Powerful Past Leader figure with 18-minute audio cassette and printed transcript of the original Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I have a Dream" speech by Olmec Toys, 1992

Martin Luther King, Jr. and His Family Paper Dolls by Tom Tierney (Dover Publications, Inc., 1993)

But I don't really need dolls to remind me of his greatness, his efforts toward promoting civil rights and equality for all Americans.  I witnessed his efforts, his eloquent speeches, and unfortunately his and others' beatings, hosings, and other physical attacks and deaths (via black and white television).  Because of the latter, my impressionable 1960s mind always wondered, "Why?"

I also sat on the back of the bus and didn't realize why until much later in life. 

I recall a 1960s bus "sightseeing" trip with my mom and one of our neighbors.  Mama and (I'll call her) Dorothy (because I honestly do not remember her name) sat together on a bench bus seat.  Alone, my 5- or 6-year-old body occupied the bench seat in front of them with enough room to seat one more next to me.  A few stops later, a white family of three (father, mother, and tween son) entered the practically full bus that had one empty bench seat left and the space next to me.  I remember thinking how very silly the boy looked with his long legs dangling from his father's lap where the father preferred he sit instead of next to me.  The boy, who initially approached the empty seat next to me, probably felt as ridiculous as I thought he looked and perhaps as bewildered by his father's venomous, proof that racism-is-taught -command, "You'd-better-not-sit-there!"

At 17, in a half-day MT-training class at Baylor University Medical Center

Fast Forward:  In the early 1970s, as a product of recently desegregated schools, I was bused to a predominantly white high school in grades 11 and 12, having to reluctantly leave the all-Black school I had attended since 4th grade with the exception of the year and a half, 7th- and first semester of 8th-grade out-of-district school attendance interruption orchestrated by my mother (but that's another story).

In grade 12, I became an affirmative action token during subminimum wage-paying training as a high school senior vocational education student.  I attended regular school classes for three hours in the mornings and trained at Baylor University Medical Center in the afternoons.  Daddy would pick me up from school, drive me home where I would quickly dress myself in appropriate business attire, and then he would drive me to Baylor for the four hours' training.  I would ride the city bus home afterward until I met a certain car-owning someone who worked there (but that's another story, too.)

In a classroom of eight girls to learn what would eventually become my vocation, there were six white girls, one Latina, and me.  Of course my academic merits as well as my African American ethnicity played a role in my acceptance into the nine-month course that I left after eight months.   After eight months of studying human anatomy and physiology and the rest of the curriculum which led to transcribing actual patient records, the instructor recommended me for a permanent position in Baylor's pathology department because she felt I was more qualified than the others for it.

Token or not, affirmative action or not, I as well as countless others have benefitted from Dr. King's law changing efforts and dedication to humankind.

I remember him today and thank him for his life-sacrificing dream. 

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