Ellen Stratton

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**Ellen Stratton**

Playboy centerfold appearance	December 1959
Birthplace	Marietta, Mississippi
Birthdate	June 9, 1939 (age 67)
Measurements	35" - 20" - 35"
Height	5 ft 4 in
Weight	110 lbs.
Preceded by	Donna Lynn
Succeeded by	Stella Stevens
Playmate of the Year (PMOY) for	1960
PMOY succeeded by	Linda Gamble

Ellen Stratton (born 9 June 1939 in Marietta, Mississippi) is an American model. She was Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for its December 1959 issue. She was also the very first Playmate of the Year, for 1960.

Ellen's family worked as sharecroppers picking cotton. When she was 10, her parents decided that there was little opportunity in Mississippi and they moved to California, settling in the Los Angeles area. (Ellen has noted that at the time, Mississippi did not require children to attend school.) Her mother found work as an uphosterer.

After graduating from high school, Ellen took a job as a legal secretary and took classes at Los Angeles City College.

While eating lunch at a diner near her workplace, she was discovered by photographer William Graham and his wife, who asked if they could take some test shots of her. The photos were sent to Playboy and the rest was history.

Her work with Playboy took her to Chicago, where she was a bunny at the Playboy Club and lived at the Playboy Mansion. While there, Ellen became acquainted with Shel Silverstein, Sammy Davis Jr. and, of course, Hugh Hefner.

Ellen later moved to Canada, where she did some freelance modeling work, acting as her own agent. She returned to New York in 1963 and found work with several modeling agencies, including William Morris, Ashley Famous Artists and Stewart Five. She spent the rest of the 1960s modeling in advertisements, in both print and for television.

She had a brief marriage to photographer and director Gordon Sheppard when she was 29. She then moved to California in 1969 and met her second husband, with whom she had two daughters. They divorced after 23 years of marriage.

Ellen now works in property management and owns rental properties in the Los Angeles area and has a granddaughter. In recent years, she has become active in Playboy events and attends the GlamourCon conventions held frequently in Southern California.