By Kathryn Skelton,Staff Writer

LEEDS – Spanky and Buckwheat. Scarlett and Rhett. John and Jackie.

Diana. Elvis. Urkel.

Their doll-likenesses live in Anita Stevens’ back bedroom with about 300 other guests, some similarly famous, some not so.

Stevens started collecting in 1985 when a doll in a magazine ad caught her eye: She was tall, with a green velvet dress, pretty dark hair, a black feather hat and emerald earrings.

That first one could not be more different than her current favorites: a series called Nana’s Family by Richard Simmons.

One chunky old lady in a leotard dances to an exercise workout. Another old man, a tooth fairy, wears a pink tutu and brandishes a wand. Each has rosy cheeks, a wide smile and softly painted liver spots. Half the women wear thick tan stockings gathered at the ankle.

“I like old people. Some of these just remind me of somebody I know,” Stevens said. “Wrinkles and everything, it just strikes me funny.”

Stevens and her husband, Wesley, are newly retired. For nearly 26 years they owned and ran the Red Roof Grocery in North Leeds. It made for decades of long days, mostly 4 a.m. to 7 p.m. They got out of the business in December.

Wesley doesn’t think he’s ever bought a doll for his wife’s collection. “I told her, you work hard, buy what you want.”

She picks almost everything from magazines, paying attention to the face, seeing if it draws her in, and whether she likes the rest of the set. Many come in sets of four or more, and as she bought more and more dolls, she became a completist.

Most are porcelain, between 12 and 22 inches tall, and they’re typically only sold for a year or so before the doll maker breaks the mold, ending the run and making them more collectible.

On her very full shelves she has a dozen Jesus dolls, Buffalo Bob and Howdy Doody, Vanna White and Dorothy from the “Wizard of Oz,” almost all with steel rods up their backs to help them stand.

The couple’s dachshunds, Danny and Charlie, are forbidden to romp in the doll room, as were unattended grandchildren.

Stevens said she has a plan for the collection after she’s gone.

She wants each of her six grandkids to pick one doll as a keepsake and sell the rest, with the money going for their education.

She’s got a lot more collecting left yet.