Six mornings a week, he rode the bus from Durham to Chapel Hill to stroll Franklin Street in traffic-stopping suits of lime green, purple and Carolina blue.

When Wright died in January at 90, he had no insurance. Saturday, his family will begin selling his wardrobe to pay for his funeral debt.

"We're struggling,'' said Marilyn Dickerson. "It was very nice, and it cost a lot."

Wright lived with his grandson Larry Edwards and Edwards' wife, Sheri, for 13 years. Dickerson, who is Sheri's mother, said the family has donated bags of clothing to Goodwill.

Thursday, she was still going through a grocery bag stuffed with neckwear.

"Oh my Lord, there looks like there's 30 ties in there," she said.

A one-time cook at UNC-Chapel Hill's Lenoir Dining Hall, Wright became such an icon that the Chapel Hill Museum bought two of his suits for its collection.

"He said everybody had a purpose, and he was right," Dickerson said.

"He would lay out his clothes at night. He didn't put them in the washing machine. He had a pail, and he had this little plunger. And he would plunge and plunge till it came clean."

Wright's suits ran 38 and 40. His shoes, 8 to 10 1/2.

Dickerson is selling the suits, with shirt, tie and pocket square for $100. An extra 25 bucks gets you matching shoes and a hat.

"That ensemble, for $125 you can't buy that nowhere," she said.

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