Terri Welles

“Me, glamorous?” asks, modestly, Terri Welles—our Playmate of the Year. “You’re not glamorous unless someone else thinks you’re glamorous. To me, I’m just me!” To us, she’s much more than just glamourous Terri Welles. Our Miss 1981 is the woman of the Eighties—men adore her and women want to be her. She’s the blonde bombshell who spent most of the decade on the arm of hockey player, Charlie Summer from LA Kings when she wasn’t posing Playboy. Before the centerfolds and before being the main squeeze of a hockey superstar, Terri was a sweet girl from California who lacked self-esteem. Being 180 pounds by the age of 14 was a troubling time in her life, but Terri refused to be a wallflower. The tall teenager developed a larger than life personality and by the time she was a high school senior, she slimmed down and was lusted after by everyone. When we first met Terri at the Playboy Mansion, we were perplexed. The all-natural beauty was invited to a party by Playmate Sondra Theodore’s brother. In Terri’s mind, she was there merely to just soak up the sun, meet some famous people and grab a cocktail of two. Thankfully, Miss Welles was persuaded by the Playboy charm and eventually was made our Miss December 1980. She was excited about being our new busty Playmate, but what she didn’t anticipate was the love and support she received from people she assumed would be critical of her shoot. “My grandfather told me, ‘Don’t you dare pass up this opportunity!’” recalls Terri of a conversation she had with him before her first photoshoot. “’You may never get another chance.’ I thought, of all people, my 70 year old grandfather!” Grandpa wasn’t the only unlikely supporter in her group. Our Playmate of the Year has said before that if it wasn’t for her family and friends, she wouldn’t have had the courage to represent a new decade of Playmates. “I’ll get a chance to present what I hope will be a good imagine of the Playmates to the public,” explains our Miss 1981. “Whoa! I’m no rockets scientist, but I do think femininity can also include courage and intelligence.” Terri Welles is the epitome of what it means to be feminine.