Martin Lane Mayfield (Class of 1955) Obituary

 

Martin Lane Mayfield passed to the other side one month after his 83rd birthday on June 7, 2020. He graduated from Del Rio High School in 1955 and was a graduate of Southwest Texas State University, and had pursued many dreams which led him to New York City, Philadelphia, and back to Texas where he was the first street vendor on "the drag" on Guadalupe in front of the University of Texas in Austin as the "Button Man," selling wooden buttons, belts, canes, and even coffins. Easily recognizable with his beard, fedora and button-down shirts, he was once the "voice" of the street vendors at Austin City Hall. He was an excellent farmer in Rockne, Texas, and this talent brought him brief wealth and many troubles which followed him to Costa Rica where he lived among his banana and pineapple plants for almost two decades. He returned to Texas in 2014 because he wanted to meet his grandsons. His greatest pleasure in his twilight years was time he spent with family. He is preceded in death by his mother, Nannie Maye Lane Mayfield, and father, Leon Wilbur Mayfield of Del Rio, Texas, and his sister, Rachel Turner of Fort Stockton, Texas. He is survived by his daughter, Mariah Mayfield Smith of San Antonio, Texas, and grandsons, Southerland Wayne Smith and Dalton Zachary Smith, both in Austin, Texas. Martin's ashes will be scattered in Mayfield Canyon this summer.