FRANKLIN FURNACE, Ohio — Dawnita Redd likes to collect things.

Not just anything, mind you, but she has quite a collection of black Barbies, Barack Obama campaign buttons and stamps of black historic figures.

Redd grew up in Huntington and went to school there through the second-grade before her family moved to the Burlington, Ohio, area. She attended schools in the South Point school district and subsequently graduated from Marshall University.

Her parents, Joe and Loretta Coleman, went to the former Douglass High School in Huntington and would question her about black history when she was growing up.

“I never had a black doll or a black Barbie when I was growing up,” Redd said. “I had two white Barbies. I saw a black Barbie in 1991.” She just had to have it. Now she has 350 of them. The Barbies are stacked up along several walls of a bedroom in her home.

“It just sort of grew,” she said. “I found a bunch on eBay. I found a black police officer Barbie. My dad retired from the Huntington Police Department. I just had to have that one. Some of them are made by designers. They can cost from $30 on up to several hundred dollars.”

Harriette Ramsey, a Burlington resident who lived several doors down from Redd’s family, said Redd is an avid scholar of black history.

“She’s done things for our school in Burlington,” Ramsey said. “She’s a very interesting individual. She’s a very unique individual.”

In addition to her black Barbie collection, Redd also has a number of personalized photographs from American presidents and politicians.

“I have a signed picture of President Obama and one of Michelle Obama,” Redd said. “I have one from all the living presidents, including President Bush. I also have autographed pictures of John McCain and Sarah Palin. I have one of Sen. Hillary Clinton and I’m trying to get one of Vice President Joe Biden.

“There are two I have been trying to get for years, but I haven’t gotten yet,” she said. Redd hasn’t been able to get signed pictures of Oprah Winfrey or Michael Jordan. She plans to keep trying, though.

She is a big fan of President Obama.

“I was invited to the inauguration, but I couldn’t make it,” she said. “My son took me to see (Obama) when he was in Portsmouth during the campaign.”

She has several dozen campaign buttons, including one bearing a copy of Obama’s birth certificate. “I had about a dozen of them made from pictures,” she said.

Redd also started a stamp collection of black historical figures for her son. “It’s what I’m happy doing,” she said. “I’m more interested in it than he is. This is one I plan to keep working on. I might sell the Barbies some day so I can get the bedroom back, but I want to keep the stamp collection going.”

Dawnita Redd
AGE: 58
HOMETOWN: Huntington and South Point, currently living in Franklin Furnace, Ohio
FAMILY: son, Marc
OCCUPATION: retired
EDUCATION: South Point High School and Marshall University graduate

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David E. Malloy/The Herald-Dispatch Dawnita Redd of Franklin Furnace, Ohio, is a collector of many things, including a large collection of black Barbies. She keeps the collection stacked along the wall in her bedroom.

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