The Teddy Bear House Museum has received a massive donation of more than 45,000 teddy bears and bear-themed collectibles, delivered in two moving trucks from North Carolina.

The collection came from the estate of Dale Smith, a lifelong teddy bear collector from Mooresville, North Carolina, who passed away last year at age 73 after a battle with breast cancer. Smith had been collecting teddy bears since she was three years old and spent 65 years curating her collection.

Museum owner Ricky A. Lenart, an artist and teddy bear enthusiast, said the donation is the largest the museum has ever received.

“We had just received a donation of around 3,000 bears, which seemed like a lot at the time,” Lenart said. “But when I heard about this one, I was in shock.”

Lenart learned of the collection through Kylie Moffett, a close friend of Smith’s. While Smith was in the hospital during her final days, she expressed a desire to keep her collection together rather than have it split up.

“She didn’t have a will in place, but she knew she wanted her collection to go somewhere it would be appreciated,” Moffett said. “She started looking up teddy bear museums and found the one in Picayune. She made contact, and we were able to let her know before she passed that all of her bears would have a new home in Mississippi.”

Smith, who affectionately referred to her collection as “the guys,” could recall each bear’s name effortlessly, according to friends. She had spent decades carefully collecting and caring for them, making this donation a meaningful final chapter to her passion for teddy bears.

Lenart, whose birthday falls on National Teddy Bear Day, said the museum’s collection has now grown significantly with Smith’s bears, which have already arrived and are being sorted for display.

“It started as a joke when someone gave me a bear,” he said. “Fifty years later, here we are.”

With thousands of new bears on site, the museum is preparing to incorporate Smith’s collection into its exhibits, ensuring her lifelong passion continues to bring joy to visitors.