Dolletta Boykin: The World’s Smallest Mother

I’m pretty sure that I have never heard a better name for a performing little person than Dolleta Boykin (Dolly Dodd, 1881-1948). Not just Doll like the Doll Family, but “Dolletta”, an even tinier doll. Boykin was her married name (her first husband was fellow little person Major Boykin), but that too sounds highly diminutive! Originally from Quincy, Illinois, she was hugely proud of her two conventionally sized children, who were born via Caesarian section, and often had herself photographed alongside them for publicity. In this pic they are next to Tom Thumb’s and Lavinia Warren’s wedding coach:

Billed as “The World’s Smallest Mother” she worked sideshows for years. The raciest part of the tale is that her second husband was the six foot tall trick roper Cherokee Buck, who’d left bearded lady Baroness de Barcsy to be with her. The man plainly had exotic taste in women. Dolletta was living in Joplin, Missouri at the time of her death at age 67.

For more on performing little people please check out Rose’s Royal Midgets and Other Little People in Vaudeville.