HELLO

Rita Carter

As a young girl, Rita Carter looked forward to Christmas each year. One reason was because tucked inside one of those brightly wrapped presents under the tree was a new doll. Usually a babydoll.

Rita and her sister, Hazel, and her friend, Shirley Jean, would play for hours with their dolls, she recalls. While Rita’s interest in dolls may have ebbed and flowed over the years, it has never disappeared. And this new great-grandmother has the collection to prove it.

She started her collection, she says, with vinyl dolls – mostly infants – reminiscent of those she played with as a child. But more recently, her collecting has turned to porcelain dolls.

DOLLY!

It is obvious that family has been vital to Rita and husband Ray, married 32 years. Their newly remodeled house near Freeport sports numerous photos of their children – Pam, Deanna and Dan – and grandchildren.

This close family relationship was responsible for Rita’s branching out into porcelain dolls. One day, browsing through a magazine, she spied a doll that reminded her of her new granddaughter, Raeann. She bought the doll and has been adding to her collection ever since.

Her dolls are sprinkled throughout the house, but a number of them proudly reside in a lighted, built-in display case the Carters constructed as part of their home entertainment center in their new family room. A new display cabinet will be home to more of her collection once she gets them unpacked from storage where they have been since the remodeling project began.

Most of her dolls are new, purchased from catalogs, stores and the occasional craft show. None of her childhood dolls survived. "I guess we played with them too hard," she quips.

"I think they are pretty. And they take you back to your childhood," Rita says in answering what she likes about collecting dolls.

It’s something I just started. I wasn’t planning on getting into it this much," she states with the knowing laugh of a true collector.

And what’s the biggest challenge she faces with collecting her dolls? "You don’t know when to stop!"

While some collectable porcelain dolls can run up to $700, Rita says most of her collection cost about $125 each. Her advice to other would-be collectors is that if they want a paticular doll, don’t worry about the cost.

Rita says another reason she collects is to have something to pass down to her granddaughters. She has promised Raeann, now nine years old, that when the youngster turns 16 the doll that started her grandmother’s porcelain collection – the one that reminded Rita of Raeann – will be hers.

Title: Insurance Client Service Representative

Offices: Oregon – coordinates crop insurance processing for northern offices. Rita previously served for a number of years as a client service representative in the Freeport office.

Farm Credit Service: 24 years

What do you enjoy most about working for 1^st Farm Credit Services?: "I enjoy working with my co-workers and being in contact with our clients on a daily basis. Farm Credit Services has been good to me."

What does providing excellence in client service mean to you?: "It means being there for our clients, listening to their needs and providing them with the most accurate and friendly service. Clients have always come first."

Story by John Leatherbury. Photos by Jon Cunningham.