is pam sutton still alive

However, Sutton continued producing liquor barrels, and the business eventually grew more prominent. It was done so the state could finally cash in (in addition to tax payments, starting a moonshine operation requires a half-million-dollar tax bond). It was an absolute honor to meet him. As only a legend would be, Popcorn Sutton was actually buried twice. He is buried in the. "I just hope and pray they don't send me off (to prison).". Over the next few weeks, Sutton sold more than 100 additional gallons of moonshine each to two different men and showed another guy the barn where three working stills and 500 gallons of moonshine sat, ready to roll. Support from our readers will help us maintain and strengthen the editorial independence that is crucial to our mission to help make Western North Carolina a better place to call home. Stanley established The Starchild character for his Kiss persona. [34] Country music stars attending the launch event included Martina McBride, Jamey Johnson, Randy Houser, Travis Tritt, Tanya Tucker, Zac Brown, Josh Thompson, Kentucky Headhunters, Little Big Town, Colt Ford, Montgomery Gentry, Jaron and the Long Road to Love, and Lee Brice. Sutton began his moonshining and bootlegging empire with just one barrel, that too, at a time when they were considered illicit businesses in the US. But to those who knew him, he was something more: a brilliant self-promoter and chemist who ultimately despised the persona he had crafted as expertly as his booze. When Popcorn Sutton died in 2009, he left behind a large sum of money. Sutton was convicted of tax evasion after his property was damaged by fire in 2007. Showed how to make moonshineHe wrote a paperback called "Me and My Likker" and recorded videos on how to make moonshine. He was a whole lot smarter than people gave him credit for. Grosser returned on March 16, 2009 to finalize the deal with Popcorn, who was scheduled to go to prison four days later. 1929 wheat penny. There is no doubt that JB and Bill will be fondly remembered as two exceptional individuals. He considered moonshining his birth rite. moonshine was made from a recipe passed down through the generations and was sold in the back of his Ford Model A truck. Authorities suspected carbon monoxide poisoning. They had two daughters. I walked over and asked if he was the man on the Postcard. Beside his grave is a marker that reads, Popcorn said [f] you.. Famed Appalachian moonshiner Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton, whose incorrigible bootlegging ways were as out of step with modern times as his hillbilly beard and overalls, took his own life rather than go to prison for making white lightning, his widow says. In Maggie Valley, he opened an antique shop as a front, soon a destination for eager buyers from across the region. Sutton conceded he was part of a dying breed in an interview last year with actor Johnny Knoxville for a video posted on Knoxville's "Jackass" Web site. (February 10, 1944 - December 22, 2010) We were fortunate to have a woman at Lions Dragstrip who was so dedicated that she wanted to preserve the performance of every car that raced down the strip. Pam Sutton married Popcorn Sutton just two years before his death in 2007. Pam Sutton, who became Sutton's fourth wife in 2007, said carbon monoxide may be the method but that's not what killed him. "And then he got into it in such a big way. A small memorial was also held for close friends and family. The pulley consists of two ropes attached to a pair of Timberland boots, so that Pams legs could be more easily hoisted in the air. Read Also: Legend or lawbreaker: The real story of Popcorn Sutton. Then there was the alleged attack on Willie Ferguson, a local musician who reportedly made the mistake of crossing Popcorn. Popcorn Sutton poses with one of his moonshine stills (photo shared with permission from Sucker Punch Pictures). In 2010, she began distilling and distributing Hank Williams Jr.s whiskey with him. By deadorkicking.com Editorial Team. After Popcorn Suttons death in 2014, Pam was left with a large sum of money. After separating from his second wife Heather Locklear, Tommy met Pam and the two fell hard and fast. But the young cop, whod seen the ravaging effects of drugs and alcohol on the locals, didnt comply. He was convicted of moonshining and illegal firearm possession offenses and was scheduled to report to federal prison in March 2009, but he committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. Best Match Powered by Whitepages Premium AGE 50s Pamela L Sutton Brooklyn, NY (Central Brooklyn) View Full Report Addresses Avenue J, Brooklyn, NY E 9th St, Brooklyn, NY At several points in my interviews, people would slip away and return with dusty jugs of Popcorns concoctions. While some revile the folkloric status Popcorn has achieved, denouncing him as a common criminal, few can argue that Popcorn was a bridge to the past, a window on a vanishing part of Appalachian culture. His recipe, on the other hand, still lives on and is produced at Ole Smoky Moonshine Distillery in Kentucky. There arent any more not in his form or fashion, thats for sure., Julia Merchant contributed to this article. Popcorn Sutton married Pam Sutton in 2007 just two years prior to his death. The states with the most moonshiners, on the other hand, are not among the top five for per capita moonshine production. Heres What You Should Know, 29 Best Restaurants in Pigeon Forge, Ranked [2023], Great Smoky Mountains National Park Entrance Fees, What You Should Know, Smoky Mountains in March: Events in Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge [2023], A Simple Guide to Smoky Mountain Parking Passes, Park it Forward. Sutton was arrested by an undercover police officer in 2008 after he admitted to storing large amounts of illegal alcohol in another location. Popcorn Suttons real name is Marvin Sutton. Some Popcorn Sutton branded products can still be purchased directly from the original company. A scrawny teen with big ears and droopy eyes, he had just watched the machine eat his quarters without dispensing his popcorn, so he whacked it repeatedly with his pool stick and broke the dang thing. I remember the blood gushing everywhere, she says. Popcorn Suttons moonshine was renowned for its high quality, and he was known for his careful and traditional methods of production. One night I sit outside the Cocke County fire station, near Popcorns home in Parrotsville, Tennessee, swigging apricot moonshine with the fire chiefs stout, gray-haired wife. In March 2009, Sutton, 62, died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Popcorn Sutton did this in his capacity as the leader of Popcorn Sutton Inc. Damian Sutton, 2, has died at a Detroit hospital after being taken off life support. Sutton committed suicide 2 years after their marriage. Sutton was born Marvin Sutton, on October 5, 1946, in the tiny town of Maggie Valley, North Carolina, to Bonnie and Vader. Popcorn may no longer be around to weigh in, but his final words appear by his new resting place near his cabin in the woods. From that moment on, the locals called him Popcorna reminder that this was one moonshiner you didnt want to cross. According to the report, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama have the most moonshiners, with a combined total of 1,634 stills seized by law enforcement. Bills organizing of the Moonshiners Reunion and Mountain Music Festival will continue, and he will perform at R.J. Rockers Brewery in honor of his music and life. Since his death, a new company, as well as an associated whiskey brand, has been launched in his memory. This Diner had postcards of him for sale next to the cash register . Living in this area, he made friends with all the sheriffs and local leaders, Fontes, stocky and dark-haired, tells me one afternoon in his wood-paneled office. If Suttons prison sentence seems light considering his many crimes, it was in part due to his age. Suttons money has been used to fund the production of moonshine and to support the people who make it. In March 2008, they raided his home and seized 800 gallons of the illegal liquor, three stills with 1,000-gallon capacities, hundreds of gallons of moonshine-making ingredients such as mash and many guns. Grosser was just like any other fanboy whod come to meet the living legend and buy some hooch. According to filmmaker Neal Hutcheson, Sutton remains an intriguing figure. Popcorns attire rarely varied: overalls, a flannel shirt and gray brimmed hat, occasionally adorned with a squirrel tail. "Nobody was going to tell him what to do," Sky told Knox News in 2009. Popcorn Sutton is an American legend! People had to make a living somehow back then I guess. 4 mos. Since his death, Popcorn's persona and work have only garnered more attention due to a whiskey company named after him, Popcorn Sutton's Tennessee White Whiskey, and as we said before, his posthumous appearances on Moonshiners. Even when he came to federal court, he was wearing bib overalls. Facebook gives people the power to share. Additionally, Sutton had had a mental breakdown after being diagnosed with cancer. In a final twist, she can now make her papas booze in Tennessee legally if she wantsthe state passed a law shortly after his death authorizing moonshine production. [8][9] In 1998 his roadside store in Maggie Valley, NC was searched by state agents, who seized a moonshine still and sixty gallons of moonshine, and Sutton was again placed on probation with a suspended sentence. Every time Sutton finished filling a barrel, he would give Nick a gallon and sell the rest to him. Join Facebook to connect with Pamela Sutton and others you may know. Did Popcorn ever have a wife? This is the Last Dam Run of Likker Ill Ever Make, The Greenbrier Gatlinburg: The best and most haunted restaurant in town, Dign Zone construction theme park coming soon to Sevierville TN, Is Mountain Monsters Real? When she was just sixteen, Pam married Popcorn Sutton, a man eighteen years her senior. Even though he is no longer alive, his legacy of moonshine production lives on. Sutton was first interred at a family graveyard in Mount Sterling, North Carolina. His moonshine was made from a recipe passed down through his family and sold in the back of his Ford Model A truck. [2] (A woman named Ernestine Upchurch, with whom Sutton had been living in the 1990s, later said she helped write the book. To elude the cops, he switched up the cars oftenit was a 46 Willis Jeep one trip, a 53 Ford convertible the next. "Those factors gave Marvin the strength to die the way he lived: according to his own wishes and no one else's," she stated. Sutton, an infamous moonshiner, had been trying to outrun revenuers for more than three decades now. He wore a long gray beard, faded overalls, checkered shirt and feathered fedora. Popcorn Suttons wife, Pam, died in 2009 after a long battle with cancer. Pam said that a few days later, after coming home from running errands, she found her husband dead in his Ford. Pam Sutton. Fontes has just returned from raiding a local pot farm and is twirling a two-foot-long marijuana stalk in his hand like a billy club. The money has also been used to support the families of those who have been killed or incarcerated because of their involvement in the moonshine business. He seemed kind and good, not perfect but who is? However, he always received only probation sentences. He always lived a death-before-dishonor kind of life." "He would tell you exactly what he thought, whether you wanted to hear it or not. Paul Stanley (born Stanley Bert Eisen; January 20, 1952) is an American musician who is the co-founder, frontman, rhythm guitarist and co-lead vocalist of the hard rock band Kiss.He is the writer or co-writer of many of the band's most popular songs. He was walking down the driveway coming toward me and told me, Hey, hey, hey, dont tell nobody what you seen here, Fontes recalls. He wasn't just a poor old moonshiner trying to make a few dollars.". [37], In March 2015, it was announced that John Lunn, who had until then been master distiller of George Dickel Tennessee whiskey since 2005, would be joining Popcorn Sutton Distilling as its new master distiller. Unfortunately, Sutton was not making enough money back then. When he took it back home what happen to it?? [24] He had also prepared a footstone in advance for his gravesite, and for years he had kept it by his front porch and had kept his casket ready in his living room. I can relate to that, as I am the same way. Its a phrase he cut into his headstone when he was still alive. "Popcorn is getting everybody drunk," the governor's Highway Patrol escorts complained and when Irwin told him to stop, Sutton packed up and left, Irwin recalled. Where Is Jungle Pam Hardy Now? He was 62 years old. On February 7, 2008, a biker arrived at Popcorns house saying he wanted to buy more than 50 gallons of moonshine. He also had a coffin ready in his living room. It is impossible to overstate the importance of the life and persona of Marvin Popcorn Sutton, a legendary moonshiner and North Carolina native who died in an automobile accident. I can't be the only one that misses Popcorn Sutton.I would have loved to pick his brain. [39] Copper stills for the facility were made by Vendome Copper and Brass in Louisville, Kentucky. "He did it his way. Sutton learned to make moonshine at an early age. Popcorn began making whiskey in his youth near what he called the Bend of the River, a leafy spot where, decades later, his empty grave would sit. For now, let's learn about Popcorn Sutton and his cause of death. Some people have questioned whether or not Pam Sutton is worthy of the money she has been left. An incident report filed by the Cocke County Sheriffs Department says that Sutton was discovered dead in his 1982 Ford Fairmont when his wife, Pam Sutton, returned from running errands. In 2012, Hillbilly Hero and Tom Wilson Jester teamed up to release a photographic book about Sutton, 'The Making and Marketing.' View the web story version of this article here. To distinguish himself from the competition, he took pride in quality. Stills are known to do that, despite Popcorns expert craftsmanship in making them. Pam Sutton had that steadfast determination and through her incredible penmanship, we can still see just how fast and who won and who . The four-word epitaph sums up how he felt about his life, his death, and his legacy:Popcorn said fuck you.Show me more booze.Head over to the girl galleries. Popcorn Sutton Wife Death As Sutton's business continued to flourish, he got involved in several legal issues, such as selling untaxed liquor, possessing controlled substances, and assaulting with a deadly weapon (between 1981 and 1985). [3] [4] [5] He wrote a self-published . He ran a PVC pipe from the exhaust of his Ford Fairlane into his window and sealed it up with duct tape. Angel Sutton is organizing this fundraiser on behalf of Glen Sutton. Lawlessness around here still persists, with poverty, crystal meth, and alcoholism rampant. Local authorities allegedly looked the other way, chalking it up to Popcorn being a community fixture. Several seasons ago, Cutie Pie almost died after getting bit by a snake while exploring a possible still site with Josh, who had to rush her to the nearest veterinarian office. Probably because its still illegal to make shine. Others view him as a criminal. "[3] His daughter said he had told her in advance that he would die by suicide rather than go to jail, adding that he had "the strength to die the way he lived: according to his own wishes and no one else's. Could it still be set up, as a shrine monument?? While we do our best to bring you the most up-to-date information, TheSmokies.com LLC makes no warranties regarding the accuracy or completeness of any content contained within. Born in Maggie Valley, North Carolina,[1][2] he grew up, lived and died in the rural areas around Maggie Valley and nearby Cocke County, Tennessee. In 2007, 'The History Channel' featured Sutton's next documentary, 'Hillbilly: The Real Story.' Sutton was found at the age of 62 in his parked green Ford Fairmont with the engine running. Some view him as a folk hero. She will be greatly missed by all who knew her. His zodiac sign was Libra, which is distinguished by assertiveness and submissiveness on both sides. In 2009, he committed suicide to avoid going to jail, and because of his cancer diagnosis, he died. and including a lot of other shit came in this country illegal. The story of the life of Popcorn Sutton shows that Americans are still not really free! The epitaph on his footstone reads "Popcorn Said Fuck You".[14][25]. Glass and Silversmithing Arts. She hadn't seen him since she was 2, though they had talked on the phone. i too would have enjoyed meeting old popcorn,he was and will always be the man the myth the legend that is popcorn marvin sutton, Our site produces editorial content for the purpose of entertainment. Marvin Suttons legend began when he beat up the snack machine with a pool cue. Since his passing, his fame has only become more widespread with a new whiskey company that bears his name and numerous mentions on Discovery Channels popular show Moonshiners. Making moonshine is relatively simple and inexpensive if you have a pot that can hold at least 5 gallons of liquid and enough space to store the finished product. Sutton's daughter later revealed that Sutton had once told her mother that he would prefer dying than going to jail. Inspired by the story, Grosser suggested they partner on a distillery and sell Popcorns moonshine legally. However, she and her father were not very close. I dont believe it or not, but the vast majority of it happened in the last few decades. pic.twitter.com/V7dUdlJWQ8. In 2009, he chose suicide in order to avoid going to prison, and he was diagnosed with cancer the following year. Pamela M. Sutton-Wallace serves as Director of the Company. He appeared in the Western film Ghost Town: The Movie, in addition to his roles in the films Ghost Town: The Movie and Ghost Town: The Movie. His archive footage was featured in a 2016 documentary series, Moonshiners. If you are able, please support The Smoky Mountain News. Since his death, he has been honored with a new company and whiskey brand named after him. In 1974, he was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and charged with multiple violations. In 2007, a fire on Sutton's property in Parrottsville led to firefighters discovering 650 gallons of untaxed alcohol there, for which he was convicted and put on probation again by Cocke County authorities. I bought a couple items and he talked to me. "Of course he did. View the profiles of people named Pamela Sutton. Per NBC News, the famed moonshiner and bootlegger Popcorn Sutton died by suicide, possibly to avoid serving time in federal prison. Neal Hutcheson, another filmmaker who worked with Sutton, is worth $30 million. What finally brought him down, however, was a fire at his own home in April 2007 when a still exploded. These recipes were made with popcorn Sutton left behind, and they included a lot of instructions and instructions on how to make them. The life and persona of Marvin Popcorn Sutton, a world-famous moonshiner and North Carolina native, are known to all. He was eating a piece of Blueberry pie. Sutton's last arrest followed a raid in which authorities found nearly 1,700 gallons of moonshine in Parrottsville and a storage unit in Maggie Valley, N.C., three stills, supplies, firearms and ammunition. Your support of SMN does not constitute a charitable donation. Sutton's widow said he'd just gotten a letter to report Friday to a medium-security federal prison in south Georgia to begin an 18-month sentence for illegally producing distilled spirits and. They should have been focused on crimes that out weighed hi. Hi my Name is Angel. He would sell a gallon of alcohol for just 6 dollars. Its easy to spot Popcorn Sutton, also known as Marvin, if youre looking for legendary moonshiners. The revised version of the book includes details of his death. How Old - Age: 80. Today, Sky Sutton is a published author, historian and genealogist. His money was running out, and many of his friends, he lamented, had stopped coming around. Popcorn Sutton, a moonshiner and bootlegger from 1946 to 2009, is regarded as an American legend. On March 16, 2009, the 48-year-old Sutton committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. I picked one up and realized the man sitting in the corner bye himself was the Legend ! No bootlegger, however, would become as enigmatic as Popcorn. Moonshine is romanticized in folklore and in the movies, Cavanaugh declared. What did his Mom put in the moonshine to make medicine, that Popcorn got addicted to? It will cost you between $30 and $40 in supplies, as well as time spent cooking and fermenting the corn. However, most believe it was either due to vandalism of the original site or a family dispute with his widow.

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