Dewey was on death row for a long time before his execution date rolled around some 20 years ago. During his time in prison, he’d heard, for the first time in his life, about teddy bears, but had not a clue what one looked like.

Dewey fashioned a crude looking teddy bear from scraps he’d assembled. When the death row chaplain visited, Dewey proudly showed off his teddy bear.

The chaplain was amazed. This cloth figure bore absolutely no resemblance to the well-known teddy bear. Dewy was crushed. "How was I supposed to know? I ain’t never seen no teddy bear!"

The chaplain was startled — a grown man who’d never seen a teddy bear. Later, the chaplain visited Dewey with a dozen pictures of teddy bears cut out of catologs. Dewey was delighted!

It was difficult, but, little by little, Dewey managed to collect materials he needed to make a teddy bear. It took a while and some guards teased him about making a toy bear. Dewey just ignored the jokers.

He gave his first teddy bear to one of the guards. The guard said he shouldn’t accept a gift from an inmate, but Dewey insisted. The teddy looked so cute — so the guard took it home and gave it to his little girl.

The child took an instant liking to the toy critter. She took it everywhere and wouldn’t go to bed without it. When Dewey heard about the child’s reaction, he was elated.

Next, Dewey launched a campaign to gather materials for the making of more teddy bears. He got tacit approval from the prison administration for his teddy bear project. After making over a dozen bears, Dewey got to thinking, "I’ll bet I can sell these teddy bears."

But instead, Dewey decided to give the bears away — in exchange for a charitable donation. And that’s what he did right up to the time of his execution.

What was the charity? Teddy bear donations were used to buy Bibles for prison inmates.