Answer: Lamb Chop

If you’re a reader of a certain vintage, you likely recall the popular children’s performer Shari Lewis and her puppet sidekick Lamb Chop: a sassy and curious sock puppet modeled after a precocious six year old girl.

The duo first appeared in the late 1950s on a local show airing on WNBC in New York. Lewis went on to perform with Lamb Chop on The Shari Lewis Show in 1960 and she later appeared on a variety of shows and guest appearances with Lamb Chop over the next thirty years. In 1992, Lamb Chop’s Play-Along debuted on PBS and went on to be nominated for sixteen children’s programming Emmy awards (six of them being wins).

Upon Lewis’ death in 1998, her daughter Mallory continued the puppeteering legacy. Mallory continued to use Lamb Chop in work with children’s charities, primarily touring with the United Service Organization (USO) to perform for military families around the world. It was on one of these tours that Lamp Chop became the most decorated puppet in the world: Lt. General Tom Conant, the Marine Corps. deputy commander overseeing the Pacific, gave Lamb Chop a field promotion to Three-Star General in recognition of her service to military families around the globe.