(Ocean Robbins) In 1976, a man named Xavier Roberts attended a local craft fair, where he discovered the creation of Martha Nelson, a Louisville art student. He saw a marketing opportunity in her one-of-a-kind “Doll Babies,” with their distinctive chubby faces and puckered expressions, along with individual birth certificates and adoption papers. Roberts convinced Nelson to allow him to manufacture and sell the doll babies in a different market, but after a dispute, Nelson rescinded her permission. So Roberts created his own version of the homely little dolls, which he called The Little People, and tried to license them to the big toy makers and distributors.