Parade will honor Payson’s Onion King
Levi Wright, 8, center, watches the annual Onion Days Parade with his younger brothers, Zac, 2, front, and Kaden, 4, right, on Main Street in Payson in this file photo.
Crowds watch the annual Onion Days Parade on Main Street in Payson in this file photo.
They call him the Onion King. And the title seems well deserved.
Bruce L. Walton is known for growing onions. The former Payson resident, whose crop helped name the city celebration, will be commemorated with an entry in the Golden Onion Days parade on Labor Day.
Family members anticipate at least 50 will participate on a float or walking next to it. Needless to say, the float will feature onions.
However, those “onions” will be made from exercise balls.
“They will be covered with beautiful sparkly cloth,” said Trita Walton Davis, Bruce Walton’s daughter.
There will also be replicas of huge onion seeds.
Bruce Walton grew up in Centerville, moved to Cedar City, then to Payson. He and his wife had seven children.
“He raised Waltonian onions, a patented brand,” Davis said.
Davis wrote her memories of her father.
“He was so concerned about his onions staying pure he would give farmers and anyone around Payson that he knew raised onions some of his seeds to raise, so as the bees were pollinating, the strain could stay pure,” she wrote.
She said his knowledge of onions was extensive.
In 1975 Bruce Walton received a certificate indicating his trademark for his Spanish onion seeds. It was issued by Clyde L. Miller, secretary of State of the state of Utah.