Kitty Perkins

Louvenia (Kitty) Black Perkins was Chief Designer of Fashions and Doll Concepts for Mattel's Barbie line for over twenty-five years. An African-American woman, Perkins was born February 13, 1948 in racially segregated Spartanburg, South Carolina. The daughter of Luther Black and Helen Goode Black, she is one of seven children. She graduated from Carver High School, Spartanburg's black High School, which closed when the school system was desegregated in 1970.