Nina (rhymes with china)

Happy 129th Birthday to My Grandmother ~ Rovilla  

My Grandmother's Favorite Doll Nina 
[pronounced with a long "i"]
Named after one of her favorite cousins, Nina Reider.
Each girl had a similar doll that was named after the other.

Over the years, the only outfit that has survived is the one that
Nina is currently wearing, although she used to have more.  
She also has to wear a scarf at all times now because
her hair got destroyed over the years.  Poor Nina!

Nina was a most beloved doll:
my grandmother played with her in the 1890s,
my mother in the 1930s, and me in the 1960s.

Little Rovilla ~ September 1894 ~ 2 years, 11 months
If only her Nina doll had been in the picture along with her!

Here is Cousin Nina with her Rovilla Doll.
Unfortunately, I don't have a photograph of my 
grandmother as a child with her Nina doll.

However, our family archives include the photo below
of an unnamed neighbor child 
holding Nina, in one of her elaborate dresses!

Nina, close - up.

New discovery: another picture of Nina —
with my grandmother’s niece, Mildred, around 1920!

Some of my mother's dolls:
Ruth Esther ~ Gracie ~ Name Unknown ~ Hortie.
They have been reduced to wearing undies & bathrobes, 
but back in the day my grandmother made clothes for all of them,
using leftover fabric from my mom’s dresses. 
 I loved it when Grandma would show me a photograph of Mom
in one of her girlhood dresses that she had made;
then she would find the leftover fabric (already years old)
and make a similar outfit for Nina or Ruth Esther or even Barbie!

My 1969 Barbie in a vintage ensemble,
created by my grandmother in 1965, based on a skirt and blouse
--  same fabric and similar design --
that she had sewn for my mother in the 1950s. 
Once upon a time, Ruth Esther had a dress from the same fabric.