"Pearl ain't like me," Dalton said, smiling. One of his pals is topiary folk artist Pearl Fryar, whose hedge-art yard is only a few miles down the road. He'll probably be driven to the cemetery in the button hearse.ĭalton has no rival Button Kings, and seems to be friends with everybody. He expects to be buried in the second coffin the first will remain in the museum as proof of his coffin-enhancing skill. So was the second of his two button coffins (Dalton damaged the first when he accidentally locked himself in it one night, trying to take a nap). It was donated by a funeral home in town. (His wife of 53 years passed away in 2008.)ĭalton regards his original button suit as his masterpiece, but we were wowed by his hearse, which he's covered with 600,000 buttons. My wife got upset when I started on my carĭalton cheerfully strums and sings for anyone who visits his museum. He'd wear a button outfit, strap on his banjo, and sing one of his self-penned button songs: As the Button Man, and later the Button King, he appeared on Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Geraldo, Regis & Kathy Lee, and countless other shows (Dalton sells a DVD compilation). "I'd go four and five days and never go to bed."ĭalton's extreme lack of sleep and 24/7 television eventually brought television to him. Next he covered a banjo, then a piano, then his 1983 Chevy Chevette (150,000 buttons). He glued 517 buttons on his shoes, then 3,005 on his guitar. Dalton opened it in 2008 in a building (built by his children) next to his home.Īfter running out of room for buttons on the suit, Dalton discovered the allure of contact cement. The suit, and all of his other button-covered items that followed, are now displayed in the Button King Museum. He still couldn't get to sleep, but he had a jumpsuit covered with 16,333 buttons. I didn't have nothin' to do." To pass the time, Dalton found an old denim jumpsuit and started sewing buttons on it. "Television went off at two in the mornin' back then," he recalled. When Dalton was 53 years old - he's now in his 80s - he developed chronic insomnia. 21, 2016.ĭalton Stevens wouldn't be the Button King if he'd been able to watch television all night.
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