Rufus Rutter

"A friend of Ellowyne’s since seventh grade, Rufus is the handyman at the Victorian house where Ellowyne lives with her grandmother. Always cheerful and a little shy, Rufus harbors an unrequited love for Ellowyne. Will he ever have the courage to confess?"

"Rufus attends college with Ellowyne and Prudence. He received a scholarship and is working to pay his living expenses. He's got very close set eyes and a very large nose. Odd looking to say the least. Ellowyne likes Rufus as a friend, at least that's what she says."

I wasn't sure whether I would purchase a Rufus Rutter doll, he's not the most handsomest of dolls after all. However, I think this guy has some potential! Of course I will need to find one within my price range first.

There have been others who have also seen his potential, as you can read in this short excerpt from an article, “Rufus’s Daydream,” which appeared in the Autumn 2015 edition of FDQ,

"He spent a lot of time lying on the small cot that was his bed, wondering what Ellowyne was doing in her apartment four stories above. His own apartment . . . much smaller than hers, of course . . . was in the basement of the grand Victorian home that once belonged to her grandmother. His space was modest, as was he, but he didn’t have many wants or needs . . . at least of the material sort.

As the house’s resident handyman, it was also his workplace. And he didn’t venture out much . . . except at the insistence of Prudence, who never tired of telling him that he was growing paler by the day and needed to get out into the sunlight. Prudence was Ellowyne's best friend and his good friend as well.

Prudence was also his handiest excuse to get closer to her. After all, she too did not venture out much, generally preferring to envelop herself in her pensive moods and linger over the trinkets and ephemera with which she surrounded herself in the spacious rooms she inhabited.

In the handful of times he had been in her apartment, he was mesmerized at the number of antique clocks, vintage outfits on dress forms, porcelain ladies and dried flowers that occupied every corner of her rooms. It was an enchanted space frozen in time, much like she was. To him, she was not of this world and that created a distance between them that he often despaired of ever bridging . . . "

TONNER STOCK PHOTO

I found this photo of him quite by chance and I actually I think he looks better with longer hair . . . now I wonder if I can find the doll. :)