GRAND HAVEN, Mich. — Grand Haven is known for the beach and the waves.
It's also known for Mary Ellen Murphy with 92.1 WGHN, who uses her voice to make it home of the Barbie Beach House through the air waves.
“I am host of Good Morning Grand Haven from 6 to 10 in the morning," said Mary Ellen. “I've been doing it for so long, I don't know if I could do anything else.”
Mary Ellen plays the classics all in hopes of creating a new life in plastic.
“I didn’t really play with baby dolls. I was a Barbie girl," she said.
As the youngest of four boys by 13 years, Mary Ellen played by herself a lot. Barbies were her makeshift friends.
“I played with my nieces and now I have grandchildren, so I guess I have been playing Barbie more than half my life," she said.
On the shelves behind her desk, glass and gray trophies mark her award-winning stories. But her most treasured – two stories of Malibu pink.
“I started buying some Barbies, and kind of getting into that Barbie culture. I thought, well, if I'm going to do this... I need a Coast Guard Barbie," she said. “So, I went to the Mattel's website, tried to find a Coast Guard Barbie. Couldn't find a Coast Guard Barbie.”
There are Barbie dolls for just about every branch of the military: Army, Air Force, Navy and the Marine Corps. We're just missing one. Mary Ellen won’t stand for that – especially not in Coast Guard City, USA.
“Then I thought, am I the only one that thinks that's a little odd? We need a Coast Guard Barbie," she said.
Doctor, stay at home mom, astronaut – every Barbie comes with a calling. Mary Ellen’s new calling may as well be Barbie.
Now she's asking for votes for Coast Guard Barbie on their website. After she gets an influx, she's going to send the results to Mattel in hopes of convincing them there's a need.
For now, you'll find Mary Ellen playing with her Beach House during commercial breaks.
She knows you don’t see many her age playing with dolls – but the darkness can make you see life in rosy hues.
“I was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago," she said. "Your whole world turns upside down, but you still have to function, you still have to go to work, you still have to do all these things, and it just sort of gave me this distraction that I needed.”
“I had an oncology appointment. I was driving home. I stop into goodwill and I find the Barbie Beach House, and it just all took off from there.”
Mary Ellen is thankfully now in remission. But her Barbie fever? That is a long-haul symptom.
“She's been there through thick and thin. She's never left my side, never," said Mary Ellen.
A Coast Guard Barbie may soon line the shelves, inside a box. And it will be thanks to the woman who thought outside of it.
“You can be anything with Barbie. And that just empowered me in my journey," she smiled.
► Vote for Coast Guard Barbie here.