TULSA, OK (KJRH) — 40 years ago, Muriel Fahrion unknowingly created one of the world's most recognizable characters as an American Greetings card design. Strawberry Shortcake's designer now calls Tulsa her home.
Fahrion knew she wanted to become an artist by the time she was four years old. As one of seven children in her Cleveland, OH home, she found isolation in a spot under the kitchen table where she would draw.
After college, it didn’t take long for her to get picked up by the card company American Greetings.
"My art director said what’s selling really well are rag dolls, and the themes of pink, and daisies, and strawberries," Fahrion said. She began creating designs as time passed between holidays.
Strawberry Shortcake was one of the designs that came out of her art director's direction. Soon after, the head of General Mills and the man behind licensing for Star Wars showed up wanting to find a character for girls.
Strawberry Shortcake was the fifth design he looked at, and knew in a single moment she would be a hit.
"He said, 'that’s it!'" Fahrion recalled. "'It’s going to be clothes, it’s going to be decor, it’s going to be dolls, it’s going to be animation.'”
Fahrion eventually moved out of Cleveland where she lived and worked. She made it to Chicago, but eventually ended up in Norman.
“I moved in ’95, the day after the bombing," Fahrion said. "I was so touched by the reverence of the people going up there. So it seems like a very sad time to step into Oklahoma, but in another way it was not, because I learned the heart of Oklahoma.”
Fahrion made it to Tulsa in 2016 when her husband was diagnosed with cancer. They relocated for a higher level of care, but he lost his fight in October 2018. Since then, Fahrion has been designing to keep herself alfoat.
"There was very little left in our account after he passed away," Fahrion said. "Very little."
When 2019 came around, bringing with it her most famous character's 40th anniversary (it's important to note she also designed The Get Along Gang and Care Bears), life and publicity began to erupt.
"Never in my life," Fahrion said about the sudden rush of stardom. "I have to give a whole lot of credit to Tulsa, because they absolutely took me in.”
Muriel has designed hundreds of characters over the years, but the support she's gotten has encouraged her to keep designing, wherever she may be, and whenever she may find the inspiration.
"It’s home,” Fahrion now says about Tulsa.
Fahrion now heads Outta Thin Air Studio from her home studio, relying on ride sharing to get her wherever she needs to go around town.
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