Samuel J Butcher

They queue up for hours, clutching their Precious Moments treasures--those familiar porcelain figurines of soulful children with eyes shaped like teardrops. Their mission: To have them signed by Samuel J. Butcher, the Michelangelo of collectibles. It is the annual gathering of the Precious Moments Collectors' Club, which has attracted 1,500 collectors from 500 clubs to the shrine--the Precious Moments Chapel and visitors' center.

They queue up for hours, clutching their Precious Moments treasures--those familiar porcelain figurines of soulful children with eyes shaped like teardrops. Their mission: To have them signed by Samuel J. Butcher, the Michelangelo of collectibles. It is the annual gathering of the Precious Moments Collectors' Club, which has attracted 1,500 collectors from 500 clubs to the shrine--the Precious Moments Chapel and visitors' center.

Eugene Freedman, 82, the creator of the Precious Moments collectible figurines, died Feb. 19 at a hospital on Maui, Hawaii, where he had a second home. The cause was a sudden escalation of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, his son, Richard, told the Chicago Tribune. Freedman, a longtime resident of Milwaukee and Glencoe, Ill., was the founding chairman and former president and chief executive of Enesco Group, a global gift and collectibles company based in Itasca, Ill. While at Enesco, he recognized that Samuel J. Butcher's two-dimensional art of teardrop-eyed children on inspirational greeting cards could become a success when rendered as porcelain figurines.

Thousands are expected to turn out, cooing over tiny figurines and telling tales of how they got this or that one. They'll buy, trade and just enjoy being with birds of the same collective feather. Today and Sunday, the 27th annual International Collectible Exposition will hit the Anaheim Convention Center.