The late Popcorn Sutton was greatly famed for his role in several documentaries. He was also known for having been on the wrong side of the law thanks to his liquor business. Today we look at how he died, his net worth, his wife and also career.
Wiki-Bio
Popcorn Sutton’s birthdate is on 5th October 1946. He was born in Maggie Valley, North Carolina in the United States of America.
His parents were Bonnie and Vader. They were mountain people who were known for hard work. The family lived in a wooden house which was perched beside a tumbling stream. His father, Bonnie, loved to play fiddle whereas Vader played spoons. Popcorn and his sister were always the dancers.
The Moonshine legend lived and died around Maggie Valley. He passed on in March 16th, 2009.
Career
Having been a descendant of a long line of moonshiners, his career majorly comprised of making moonshine and bootlegging. He always laid the legitimacy of his work to his decent. One thing that characterized his career was his frequent trouble with the law. Even before his fame at 60 years of age, he had been on the wrong side of the law several times. He had, however, managed to evade a jail term.
In 1974 he got convicted for selling untaxed liquor. In 1981 and 1985, he was also arrested for being in possession of controlled substances and also for assault with a deadly weapon. Luckily for him, he was only put on probation.
In 1999, the legend moonshiner wrote a self-published autobiography and guide to moonshine production. It was called Me and My Likker. He began selling the copies from his junk shop in Maggie Valley. He went ahead to produce a video of the same biography and released it on VHS tape.
In 2002, he made his first appearance in a feature film. This was in Neal Hutcheson’s documentary, Mountain Talk. In the same year, he featured in Hutcheson film “This is the Last Dam Run of Likker I’ll Ever Make.” This film turned out to be the turning point of his life and career. It quickly became a classic. Within no time, it drew the attention of television producers in Boston and New York.
As fate would have it, In 2007, 650 gallons of untaxed alcohol were seized in his property in Parrottsville as firefighters tried to put out a fire was razing down the property. He was arrested and put under probation yet again.
Popcorn Sutton also featured in other documentaries including Hillbilly (2007) and The Last One (2018).
Popcorn Sutton Married Life with Wife and Children
Popcorn Sutton married just two years before his death. His wife’s name was Pam Sutton. According to Pam, the two dated and married after only one month. Unfortunately, the matrimony lasted only two years (220 – 2009) before the Moonshiner committed suicide.
Popcorn Sutton had two children, all of whom were daughters. One of them sued his widow over the rights to Popcorn’s book. The other daughter, known as Sky Sutton, wrote her book entitled Daddy Moonshine. Sky Sutton, who lives in Massachusetts, had not seen her father since she was two years old.
Marvin ‘Popcorn’ Sutton Net Worth
By the time of his death, the Moonshine legend, Popcorn Sutton had an estimated net worth of around $13 million. This was attributed mostly to his salary from the documentaries he featured in as well as his liquor business.
How did Moonshiner Popcorn Sutton Die?
This is how the Moonshine legend died. Secret agents conducted another raid on his property in March 2008. Five hundred gallons of moonshine were unearthed in Tennessee and another 400 gallons in Maggie Valley. This discovery resulted in his arrest and conviction to 18 months in federal prison for illegally distilling spirits and being in possession of a firearm.
His request to be allowed to serve his sentence under house arrest was declined by the judge. This was because he was already under probation and he had been convicted five other times before.
Another reason was that the actor featured in films surrounded by firearms and which demonstrated how to make illegal moonshine.
Not ready to face Federal imprisonment, the movie star committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning in March 2009, aged 62.
Initially, after his death, his body was interred at a family graveyard in Mount Sterling, North Carolina. It was later relocated to his property in Parrottsville. A public memorial service was held before the body was finally carried to its new resting spot.