Button King

Dalton Stevens (April 28, 1930

Background Dalton Stevens' hobby of sewing buttons onto things began as a reaction to suffering from chronic insomnia for years. "I have insomnia and I would go sometimes four to five days and nights without sleeping," he explains. In 1983, his inability to sleep after television broadcasting ended at 2 am led him to discover that sewing buttons helped him pass the time while his wife Sue slept.

Button art The first item Stevens began sewing buttons onto was a pair of denim pants. "I had nothing else to do while my family slept at night," Dalton says. Songs he had written include "Insomniac Shuffle" and "Poppin' Buttons", which have been made available on a self-released album. Stevens subsequently appeared on the David Letterman show and in a commercial. The Button King was featured in a 2010 episode of Destination Truth.

Personal life

Stevens' wife of 53 years, Ruby, died in 2008. Stevens was seen regularly at his museum on Joe Dority Road in Bishopville, South Carolina.