They watch collectors’ magazines for ads for “retired” or “suspended” designs that have escalated in value. Throughout America, collectors avidly scour swap meets for the figures. Outside, under a tent, collectors are playing “Wheel of Fortune” with names of Precious Moments figurines. “Those who have suffered the loss of a loved one find comfort.” “Sam has an unbelievable talent for tugging at people’s heartstrings,” says Freedman. Visitors dab at their eyes as they pause before it. He has dedicated a small room at the center to him and there he has painted a mural with teardrop-eyed angels bidding Philip, “Welcome Home.” His son, Philip, was killed last year in a car accident. “They remind us of things we’ve been through in our lives, our ups and downs.”īutcher understands that. The figurines “mean that much to us,” she explains. Oklahomans Debbie and David Kendall have been waiting three hours. “When I’m here,” he says, “I live in the garage.” Tourists don’t come through there.Ĭarol Osterberger, a collector from Independence, is punching holes in conventioneers’ badges, “so they don’t go through the line again and get another one signed.” She is wearing a vest inscribed, “Sam’s Angels.” But the truth is that, although his home on the complex is a tourist attraction, he divides his time between homes in Chicago-close to Enesco-and the Philippines, where he does evangelical work with children and where Precious Moments soft dolls are made. Today, Freedman says, the figurines, plates, ornaments, jewelry, mugs and all add up to “in excess of $100 million a year” in sales.Ĭarthage is proud to call Butcher a Carthaginian. The first, “Love One Another,” a boy and girl on a tree stump, just took off. At a friend’s urging, he drew a modest greeting card line that debuted at a Christian booksellers event in Anaheim.Įnesco president/CEO Eugene Freedman saw the potential of those drawings and, in 1978, they hit the gift shops in three dimensions. In the mid-’70s, he was a “chalk minister,” teaching children about God through his drawings.
Butcher, 52, who once supplemented his income as a part-time janitor and bought clothes for his seven children at the Salvation Army, acknowledges that Precious Moments has made him a very rich man, “but a grateful one.”
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