Terri Welles, Playmate of the Year, 1981

Terri Welles is on a roll. Just a few short months ago, her domain was seats 10A to 20D on a United red-eye. She was a flight attendant. It's an OK gig and she was good at it, but you don't ask a thoroughbred to pull a plow. Any passenger half into his morning coffee could see this woman was several cuts above the ordinary. Goodness knows, we saw it. Scant moments after meeting her, we cleared the cover of our May 1980 issue for her act; in that outing, a simple stun and run, she was pictured sitting provocatively in a flight uniform to herald our legendary pictorial on stewardesses. It all came about when an old friend of Terri's, who happened to be the brother of Playmate Sondra Theodore, took her to Playboy Mansion West for a visit. It was a fateful evening for Terri and for us. We saw a woman with sparkle and verve about to blossom into something very special. (text concluded on page 203) Playmate of The Year (continued from page 162) Terri saw an opportunity for a fling in the world of modeling, a career she previously had toyed with between hops around the country. It was only a one-shot, a cover on a prestigious national magazine. Just the thing to get a new career into gear. But neither we nor Terri expected the enormously favorable response of our readers to that cover. They were intrigued. They wanted to see more of this fresh-faced, leggy stew from California who at that time was known as Terri Knepper.

We convinced Terri that her destiny lay not in the sky but among the stars and in December we moved her into the rarefied atmosphere of our centerfold. It was in that layout that Terri's secret was revealed; behind her gorgeous exterior was an equally appealing interior. She had an ego-wilting wit, an electric personality and, perhaps most importantly, a clear, levelheaded perception of what she was.

Traditionalists would have decried her independence, her lack of fawning femininity. We are not traditionalists. We were inspired by it. This, we agreed, was what the 20th Century had wrought, awaited assertion of the strength of womanhood. Miss Welles, a glittering product of her time, was a woman for the Eighties.

There could be no other choice for our 1981 Playmate of the Year.

The trouble with the top is that once you get there, everybody forgets how much of a struggle it was to make it. Terri did not snap her fingers and find herself on the top rung. She did it by extending herself, accepting challenges. It took a lot of inner strength. Where did that strength come from?

"From me!" says Terri, laughing. "Of course, the Lord, my family and friends helped a lot. But I'd always known that one day my family and friends might be gone--hopefully, not all on the same day--and I would have to depend on myself. Actually, everything I've done in life has made me stronger. What is life if you don't have challenges?"

Among the challenges Terri has recently accepted is one from L.A. Kings hockey superstar Charlie Simmer, who has asked her to be his wife. His asking--and her accepting--came as something of a surprise to Terri, who had been perfectly content with her single life. "Marriage wasn't an important issue with me until I met someone I wanted to marry." Finding the right man, at the right time, has given her the inspiration she needed to really bear down on her career goals.

Terri's current goal is to make it as an actress. With a face and a body like hers, you'd think she'd be a shoo-in. But she knows there'll be challenges there, too. "I suppose I'll have the problem of being stereotyped into being T-and-A when I walk into a casting director's or producer's office. So I know I'd better be a damn good actress when I do it."

You'll be able to judge Terri's acting ability yourself when her first movie, Looker, is released this year. Her role is small, so it wasn't a peak experience in her life, but it was a start. "For that ten minutes, I worked over a period of two months. Not every day ... sometimes three or four days in a row, then one day, then not for two weeks. Some days I'd work all day just for 30 seconds of a scene. I play the part of a perfect female, which was, I admit, ego gratifying. But I found the real kick in acting comes when you hear the director say 'Cut; that's fine.' In a way, it's stroking for an actress. It means it's over and you did a good job."

With her eagerness to work and to please, we think Terri's film career can't miss. Meanwhile, she'll be our queen, traveling all over the country as Playboy's 1981 Playmate of the Year. Terri is ready for the assignment. "I'll get a chance to present what I hope will be a good image of the Playmates to the public."

In the hands of Terri Welles, the Playmate image has never been better.

For a look at Terri's gifts, turn to page 195.