Teddi Smith

Teddi was Playmate of the Month for July 1960. Her pictorial was titled Ship Shape.

Teddi was born Delilah Henry on Sept. 21, 1942, in Hastings, NE. In the book “The Bunny Years: The Surprising Inside Story of the Playboy Clubs,” she says her family became migrants while she was still a baby, traveling from Northern California to Oregon to find work. They settled in Grant’s Pass, OR, for a while where the family built a log cabin. Later, while living in Log Angeles, Teddi left school at age 16.

Teddi reportedly was “discovered” in California by glamour photographer Edmund Leja, who was a friend of her parents. She posed for a series of photo shoots with Leja at his Woodland Hills, CA, home and at locations around Los Angeles. Leja sent a few to Playboy.

After her Playmate of the Month pictorial, Teddi became involved with Playboy. “I was the first girl to be invited to live in Hef’s mansion in Chicago,” she says in the book “The Bunny Years: The Surprising Inside Story of the Playboy Clubs.” She also started working as a Bunny at the Chicago Playboy Club. “When it was discovered that I was only 17 years old, too young to work legally in the club, I became Hef’s receptionist at Playboy and traveled the country doing Playmate promotions.” She later worked as a Bunny in the Chicago and New Orleans Playboy Clubs and worked in the Playboy photo department.

Teddi appeared on the cover of Playboy five times during the 1960s.

As of 1998, Teddi had had her own New York-based interior design firm for 15 years.

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Digital | Leja photosets | Later in life

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