The founder of “ethnically correct” dolls who found special favor with the Clinton White House, Ron Brown’s Commerce Department and Chinese government officials has quietly abandoned her Richmond, Virginia, plant amid a rash of lawsuits.
Yla Eason, who founded Olmec Toys Inc., manufacturer of ethnic dolls and games, has closed her Richmond facility and faces lawsuits brought by a local bank and a former company officer seeking to recover a total of $1.4 million. According to court papers, Eason has moved to Detroit.
In 1997, President Clinton presented Eason with a Business Enterprise Award for her work since the mid-1980s in providing minority children with positive role models through Olmec-made dolls. She also attended the presidential business development mission to China in August 1994. Clinton personally invited her to take the trip with then-Commerce Secretary Ron Brown.
In Beijing, Eason met with officials of the China National Toy Association at the personal arrangement of Brown. At the time, Olmec had been working with a Chinese partner to “handle shipping, sourcing of products and manufacturing.” Olmec was in China to “explore joint venture projects, especially with the mold machinery makers and toy manufacturers,” according to documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
The dolls she created — ranging from black to Asian, Hispanic, white and American Indian — were sold at Kmart, Wal-Mart, Eckerd’s Drugs and Toys R Us.
Eason is named, along with two business partners, in separate
lawsuits filed against Olmec in the Richmond court.
In a Sept. 10 letter to one business partner, she said she was “diligently
working on a strategy to repay your loan to Olmec,” according to
court papers.
The toy entrepreneur asked for access to dolls and board games
being held in storage. “I have orders to ship,” Eason wrote
in the letter sent from Detroit.
It wasn’t clear from the court papers whether Eason is running
Olmec from the Midwest.
The second lawsuit has been filed by Dr. Bettye D. Stanley, a
former business partner of Eason who is listed as an officer of
Olmec. Stanley is seeking $629,925 for money she lent to Olmec,
plus deferred salary from the company.
No trial date has been set.
The much-acclaimed toymaker has 20,000 board games and 1,600
Malcolm X dolls in storage, according to Stanley’s suit. Olmec’s distinctive red and black sign remains on the front of its former factory in an industrial
area north of the Science Museum of Virginia.
It’s now home to an equipment sales company.
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