Woman who took on Disney over Pooh dies

LOS ANGELES, July 20 (UPI) -- Shirley Slesinger Lasswell, who fought Walt Disney Co. for years over Winnie the Pooh royalties, has died in Los Angeles at the age of 84.

Lasswell died Thursday at the Beverly Hills home of a daughter of respiratory failure, The Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

Her first husband, literary agent Stephen Slesinger, secured the rights to sell Pooh merchandise in the United States and Canada from the silly bear's creator, A.A. Milne. After Slesinger'S death, she designed Pooh products for upscale department stores and developing a nationwide licensing program. In 1961, she signed the rights over to Disney in exchange for ongoing royalty payments.

In 1991, Lasswell and her daughter filed suit against Walt Disney Co., alleging breach of contract and fraud, claiming they were cheated out of hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties for videos, computer software and other Pooh-marked merchandise, the Times said.

During the past 16 years, more than three judges and a dozen law firms were involved in the breach-of-contract suit.

Her second husband, "Snuffy Smith" comic strip creator Fred Lasswell, died in 2001.

In addition to her daughter, Pati Slesinger, Lasswell is survived by a granddaughter.