Legendary Smokies Moonshiner Dead at 62
March 25th, 2009The Smokies get a little less wild with this sad news out of tiny Parrottsville, Tennessee, located just north of Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Cherokee National Forest. This just in from Backpacker Magazine: Moonshine and Star Charts:
Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton, 62, a famous moonshiner known for his premium “booger” style of corn liquor, died last week after committing suicide rather than being re-imprisoned.
Sutton was out on bond following a 2008 conviction for moonshine and firearms possession by a felon (the felonies were previous moonshine and tax evasion convictions). He committed suicide days before reporting for prison after a sentencing appeal failed. Sutton, who was ill, was facing 18 to 36 months behind bars, after the raid turned up guns, three 1,000-gallon stills and 800 gallons of moonshine along with corn mash and other ingredients.
Sutton was one of the last real moonshiners. Much of his life had been spent running untaxed liquor and distilling unlicensed alcohol. His colorful hillbilly ways and authentic adherence to a vanishing lifestyle made him a folk hero across much of the Appalachians, especially after he wrote and published an autobiography called “Me and my Likker.”
Sutton also starred in several short documentary films and Youtube videos.
To get a sense of what the Appalachians and mountain culture lost (thanks to the ATF and an overzealous prosecutor) just watch the linked video. As Captain Jack Sparrow lamented in Pirates of the Caribbean: “The world’s as big as it always was; There’s just less in it.”
Aside from his colorful nature, Sutton was known for his safe approach to distilling ‘shine. He had few kind words for many modern moonshiners, who he felt were endangering themselves and customers by using unsafe metals and welding materials. Improper moonshine distilling can result in a poisonous product.
Prior to his death, Popcorn had prearranged for the re-release of an updated autobiography to help support his wife Pam (Pam Sutton, Box 38, Parrottsville, TN 37843). His daughter Sky also wrote a book “Daddy Moonshine” that went into proofs just as Popcorn died (asneeded@skysutton.com.)
Rest in peace, Popcorn. And if any readers out there got a jar of ‘booger,’ take a long, slow sip in remembrance.
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Tags: Appalachians, Daddy Moonshine, Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton, Moonshine, Smoky Mountains
March 26th, 2009 at 9:34 am
Appalachia’s Scots-Irish-Cherokee folk (which includes most of my American ancestors) developed a unique culture, some would say a distinct nationality, based largely on ancient Celtic tribal mores with a good dose of Native American thrown in. It is a culture that is largely misunderstood – Hollywood’s take on it was the ridiculous Beverly Hillbillies TV series – if not totally unknown to most modern Americans.
Those of us with roots in Appalachian culture know what shape-note singing is, have probably been to at least one barn dance as a small child, have heard stories about Aunt Sadie and her ceremonial sticks around the chicken house, and know that Uncle Bud frequently hung out with buddies like Popcorn Sutton and probably picked up a few extra dollars during the Depression, and afterward, working as a freelance distributor for a local version of Popcorn somewhere.
By the way, some of the things old-style Appalachians believed to be true that I continue to believe myself include the superiority of herbal medicines and concoctions (most often given in the form of teas) over modern chemical “medicines” and that certain people have “the gift,” the ability to see and understand a person’s spirit and what is likely to happen in the future. “The gift” was usually found in strange older women, but sometimes men had it too.
Appalachian culture was fiercely anarchist at its core, just like Celtic tribal culture. To their eternal credit, the Appalachian regions of the Civil War South opposed slavery and either fought on the side of the Union or sniped at Confederates from high mountain redoubts whenever the Rebs appeared.
And of course, through it all, they made ‘shine.
March 27th, 2009 at 6:09 am
Back in the early 1900′s my wife’s uncle Shelby asked a local fellow in the Alabama-Tennessee border area here to loan him a few hundred dollars so he could build a house for his family on land he owned. The fellow said he wouldn’t make the loan but he’d teach Shelby how to make some money. He taught Shelby how to make good moonshine, and Shelby built his little house. Unfortunately, Shelby’s product was so good he got addicted to it. And he addicted some of his brothers. It went into the next generation. One of his nephews was a bedridden resident of the Ardmore, Tennessee, nursing home when a local paper asked the decrepit seniors what they remembered best about their younger days. Most talked about fried chicken dinners, and working in the fields on a nice day. But Charles’ memories were of good corn likker.