Copyright 1998 Precious Moments
Samuel J. Butcher is an American artist. He is mainly known as the artist behind the Precious Moments brand of characters based on American-Christian themes. He draws in oil, water-color, acrylic, and mixed-mediums.
In 1974 he created the now-famous Precious Moments drawings for J&D, which was introduced to the market a year later. Before that, Butcher created many other pieces of work, from kitsch oil-paintings to comic strips. These works can be observed at the Precious Moments Chapel in Carthage, Missouri.
Some time before 1978, Sam met Eugene Freedman at a Christian trade show in Los Angeles, California. (Teepee 2005)
The three major products carried by J&D were greeting cards, porcelain figurines, and vinyl dolls. It was when J&D sourced the vinyl dolls in Asia that Sam fell in love with the Philippines. In 1981 Sam and Bill traveled to The Philippines, where they gave financial assistance to a Bible college. (Butcher, J. 2005)
It was after that time that Sam and Bill went separate ways. J&D relinquished its greeting card business, passed its porcelain products to Enesco, and abruptly stopped producing vinyl dolls. The doll business would be reborn as Precious Moments Country Dolls in 1989 - renamed Precious Moments Company Dolls in 1992. (PMC 2005)
With the success of the Precious Moments series, Butcher founded the Samuel J. Butcher Foundation and Precious Moments, Inc.(PMI). In 1989, he completed the construction of the Precious Moments Chapel. He privately funded the purchase of land on an island near Manila (Sampaguita Gardens in Aklan), and built a hotel resort. Through this resort Sam provides employment and training opportunities for people from Aklan and students from other provinces in Western Visayas.
Later in his adult life, he moved to St. Charles, Illinois and lived with his children.
Yet he began to spend more and more time in his resort in The Philippines as the success of Precious Moments rose. At the height of popularity, Sam fell ill due to strokes brought on by self-medicating - his children brought him back to the States, where he was diagnosed bipolar and treated. He then returned to the Philippines. (PMCOM 2005)
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