Retrospect: Portland woman dolled up Christmas

Fifty years ago this week, a mother and daughter were working to make the Christmas season a little bit brighter for some of the community’s underprivileged.

On Dec. 13, 1967, The Commercial Review’s Shirley Hayes had a front-page story highlighting the efforts of Vivian Heston and her mother, Mary.

The two Portland women were in the process of collecting old, damaged dolls and repairing them. Their work included sewing new outfits, including hats, scarves and booties, for the neglected toys, which ranged from smaller Barbie-style dolls to life-size baby dolls. They collected scraps of material from sewing projects to use for the tiny clothes.

Together, Vivian and Mary had fixed more than 20 dolls.

Many of those dolls were to be donated as Christmas gifts for local children who were part of the Head Start program through a project sponsored by Joint Organization for Broader Services (JOBS). Girls were to receive the dolls, while other gifts were being prepared for boys.

Vivian said she took on the project in order to make use of her spare time to help a good cause.

“Well, I think — what am I here for, anyway, if I can’t do some good things?” she said.