DOLL SALE BENEFITS ST. JUDE

SIKESTON -- Most of the dolls S. Catherine Anderson and Lorna Miller make are bought by adults who are collectors. They are sculptures more than dolls and sell for hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars.

But their dolls are children. Both women wanted to do something charitable for children, so they collaborated on Tosha and Mary Beth, "Untainted Hearts."

The net proceeds from a drawing for the work will be donated to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis.

The one-of-a-kind sculpture is meant to illustrate the special way children see others.

Distressed Tosha is black, comforting Mary Beth, who is white. As the promotional material for the drawing says: "These two little girls are unaware of their differences. They only want the hurt to go away."

Anderson, who lives in Sikeston, wanted to give the money to St. Jude because the hospital helped a childhood friend through the loss of a child to cancer.

"It was pretty easy to do this one because the wound was still deep," Anderson said.

The collaboration between the two artist friends is a first and was accomplished despite the fact that Miller lives in California,

The dolls are made of Cernit, a polymer clay that can be baked in a home oven. Everything is handmade, including the clothes, and each piece requires about 100 hours of work to achieve the startling realism.

"They don't look as much like a doll as you'd think," Anderson said.

A drawing for the sculpture will be held by July 1. A donation of $50 provides one opportunity to win the pair of dolls.

The deadline for entering the drawing is Thursday. Send donations to Marian Malone, St. Jude chairman of collections, P.O. Box 1927, Sikeston, Mo. 63801.

The artists may be contacted for more information at (510) 262-0802 (Lorna Miller) or (314) 471-0521 (Catherine Anderson).