Over the last 16 years, the complicated legal actions involving the silly bear took more turns than there are paths in the Hundred Acre Wood.
More than three judges and a dozen law firms were involved in the breach-of-contract suit. Disney was chastised for destroying more than 40 boxes that contained Pooh papers, including one marked "Winnie the Pooh, Legal Problems."
A California state court judge threw out the lawsuit in 2004 after finding misconduct on the part of Lasswell and Slesinger.
The judge accused them of hiring a private investigator to steal confidential Disney documents from the company trash, then lying and altering court papers to cover it up. The decision is being appealed.
In yet another legal action, a U.S. District Court judge dismissed a copyright lawsuit earlier this year that sought to end Disney's obligation to pay Lasswell and her daughter Pooh merchandise royalties. The decision ensured that the pair would continue to share in Pooh's riches.
The copyright suit dated to 2002, when the granddaughters of author Milne and illustrator E.H. Shepard filed a complex lawsuit that invoked U.S. copyright law to assert rights to Pooh.
Had they prevailed, Lasswell and Slesinger's rights to the bear would have been erased.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of the copyright case.
Through the years, Lasswell often could be seen sharing the backseat of a chauffeured luxury car with a 3-foot Pooh doll buckled in beside her.
She was born Shirley Ann Basso in Detroit, the eldest daughter of a jeweler and his wife. When she was 5, her father died and her mother, Clara, went to work at a post office.
At 16, Lasswell left high school to help support the family. She sold Venetian blinds and did clerical work for the Packard Motor Car Co.
Her mother passed along dreams of Broadway stardom to her daughters and paid for years of singing and dancing lessons.
When the Olsen and Johnson vaudeville comedy troupe stopped in Detroit, Clara pleaded for a backstage introduction, and the sisters were hired on the spot, according to the American Reporter article.
Within hours, they were learning dance routines on a midnight train to Chicago. They toured for a decade with the troupe and appeared in the zany revue "Hellzapoppin" on Broadway.
During World War II, Lasswell spent two years with the USO, often performing overseas.
