Doll ‘Clinic’ Keeps Much-Loved Links to the Past in Good Health : Sisters’ hobby has grown into successful family business at The Dollmakers.

Sharon Verhoff kept her favorite childhood doll in an old shoe box for nearly 40 years. Though the arms and legs had fallen off, the wig was badly tangled and the clothes were lost long ago, she couldn’t part with it. It was her first “big girl doll,” a Christmas present in the late 1940s, when she was about 8.

So, when she heard that a new store called The Dollmakers in Monrovia specialized in repairing dolls, she was one of the first in line.

When Verhoff came back to see her old friend with a new auburn wig in pigtails, a new custom-made outfit and reattached arms and legs, she began to cry.

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“It was almost like a child of mine had been helped through surgery,” she said.

Since The Dollmakers opened four years ago, its repair clinic has become the most time-consuming part of the business and, owners say, one of the most rewarding.

Affectionately called “the doll hospital,” the clinic’s walls are stocked with tattered dolls. While some have chipped paint, missing eyeballs or broken limbs, each provides a personal link to the past, a distinct history that makes it priceless.

Sisters Pam Fitzpatrick and Jennifer Ranger, who opened the store in 1991, say they love to hear customers tell stories about their dolls. Like the woman with a wooden doll whose eye was damaged when a younger brother attacked it with a bow and arrow. Or a mother’s favorite doll that she lost many years ago but never forgot.

Ranger encouraged her sister to open the retail store and turn a longtime hobby into a career. Together, they felt their passion for the art, coupled with their friendly personalities, would make the business a success.

The store offers doll-making supplies such as clay, sculpting tools, eyeballs and fur to make stuffed animals. Customers can also find doll apparel, including unique outfits and novelties such as roller skates. The sisters also sell the dolls and stuffed animals they have created and provide classes in doll-making, design and repair for adults and children.

In addition, customers can have dolls custom made. For instance, “American Bandstand” founder Dick Clark recently commissioned The Dollmakers to make a porcelain doll resembling his wife, Kari, to celebrate her birthday. The sisters used photographs as a guide to sculpt it.

Today, the whole family is involved in the business in some way. Middle sister Cindy Ranger joined the shop in April to help with sales so her sisters can focus on doll design and repair. First cousin Sharon Howard comes in to help two days a week and is responsible for coordinating and teaching classes. Older brother Jim Merriam helps out occasionally.

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Ranger and Fitzpatrick say they’ve been warned about the hazards of working with family but believe the experience has helped them grow closer.

“The basis of our business and the basis of everything we do together is the fact that we do love each other,” said Ranger.

Fitzpatrick and Ranger both love to talk, so they often finish each other’s sentences. At times their conversations have the rhythm of a seasoned comedy team. Every chance she gets, the younger sister points out the elder’s age.

Many customers have become good friends. Peggy May, a regular in the store who has a room full of dolls and bears in her West Covina home, says the sisters are like family.

“They always have time to talk no matter how busy they are,” said May. “They always make you feel important.”

“It doesn’t always ring up on the register,” says Fitzpatrick, “but it all comes together to make success.”