Butler man cheers up community
STORY AND PHOTOS by Paul Newton
Most days in Butler, if the weather’s right, you’ll find Alonzo Smith sitting along West Mill Street. He’s not selling anything. Not waiting on anyone. He’s waving. And nearly everyone waves back. Alonzo stops talking as a car approaches. He and the driver start waving. “Hey, my man!” Alonzo says. “That guy and I have lunch nearly every Tuesday, and we met because of this.”
Alonzo has become a small-town celebrity since moving to the western Missouri town from Plano, Texas, about three years ago. He’s likely waved at nearly everyone in town from his folding chair and was even named the grand marshal at Butler’s annual Christmas parade this past December.
This wasn’t Alonzo’s plan when he moved to Butler, the smallest city he’s lived in. One warm day, Alonzo took his tablet and headphones out to the front yard to listen to music — mostly from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. He perched himself in his folding chair in the front yard, close to his home.
“As I was listening to music, people waved as they drove by, so I always waved back,” Alonzo says. “It was nice the next day and I went back out to listen to music again and sat a little closer to the sidewalk and the same thing happened. I started inching up every time I came up here. More people noticed me and waved back and I decided I’m just going to move all the way up here and see what happened.”
What happened is Butler found its greeter.
A Familiar Sight
People in Butler began to go out of their way to drive by him around lunchtime. On social media, locals asked if anyone knew the man on West Mill Street or his story. And people noticed when he wasn’t there.
“Early on, I was at Walmart and a few people came up and said they recognized me as the guy that waves at everyone,” Alonzo says. “And they said they’ve driven by a few times and didn’t see me and wanted to be sure everything was OK.”
That’s back when he was only doing it for about an hour per day. He slowly started staying out longer and eventually settled into a three-hour routine from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on days when the weather cooperates and the temperature tops 50 degrees. “What I enjoy are the people,” Alonzo says.
Over time, he’s come to notice the small differences in how people respond. Some people start honking as soon as they see Alonzo in his chair. Some roll down their windows to say hi and others just offer a kind smile as they drive by. He says some of his most enthusiastic wavers are Butler’s city employees, including the firefighters and police officers.
“This will be my third year doing this and I’ve only had one guy give me the finger — just one,” he says with a smile. “I don’t think that’s too bad.”
A Moment of Recognition
For a while, Alonzo didn’t think much of it. But others noticed. Cody Morris was the executive director of the Butler Chamber of Commerce and says Alonzo’s name came up during one of their meetings.
“There’s a whole town that just secretly — or not so secretly — loves his waving,” Cody says. “He does this to every car that passes every day, and everybody enjoys it.”
The board decided to go with Alonzo as the grand marshal for the 2025 Christmas parade. A few of Alonzo’s fellow First Baptist Church parishioners approached him about it. He asked for time to think about it and then a former pastor asked him about it again. “I asked him what it all entails,” Alonzo says. “He told me: ‘As far as I understand, all you have to do is wave at everyone.’”
Alonzo was in, waving was his wheelhouse.
When the parade began, Alonzo quickly realized there was something he didn’t know. “I did not realize the scope, the popularity of this whole situation,” he says.
As Alonzo led the parade, he became emotional. “I cried the first mile of it,” he says. “I was so overwhelmed and touched by everyone.”
People called out to him from all sides the entire length of the parade.
“To be able to unify over something as simple as waving is so special,” Cody says. “It shone a spotlight on something so small and so kind.”
For Alonzo, it’s meant more than recognition. In a town that was unfamiliar a few years ago, he’s found something lasting. “These people have absolutely embraced me in a way that I never thought. I love it here. This is home until the Lord takes me home.”
Email Paul Newton at pnewton@ruralmissouri.coop.