Pioneer in Toy Industry Dies

Frances Wang Gershon, co-founder of U.S. Toy Co./Constructive Playthings, died August 28, 2007. From its beginning in 1953, the company grew to eight stores in seven states, "including its 1 million-square-foot headquarters in Grandview." Gershon's goal was to produce nonviolent educational toys, and she was among the first toy merchants to "develop multicultural dolls whose facial features reflected those of the children who played with them."