SHINE GIRL ‘SHINE

NOT ONE TO TRADE ON HER FAMILY CONNECTIONS, DANIELLE PARTON MAKES HER MARK HER OWN WAY

Written by Jimmy Proffitt / Photography Courtesy of Shine Girl

The first time I met her she was raising a toast at her best friend’s wedding rehearsal dinner. Well, it was part toast and part warning for the husband-tobe, as it came across sweet, threatening, and funny all at the same time. At the end of that evening she asked if I could give her a ride to her car, which was still parked back at the church. I’m not sure why she asked me, since we’d just met, and I’m not sure why I agreed, knowing she had the ability to cast a curse while casting a spell. It seems the spell has lasted on me for more than 25 years.

The her, well that’s Danielle Parton. Yep, she’s a Parton. I’ll go ahead and address the obvious question. Yes, she wears high heels, puts on a perfect face, and can hold her own in a room full of men. Oh, and she’s Dolly’s niece. All those high heels, face stuff, and holding their own, well it’s a family condition. She comes by it honest. I called my parents that night, “You won’t believe who I gave a ride to!”

My mom grew up Dolly-Parton-poor. If you’re not familiar with that kind of poor, well consider yourself privileged. It’s a poor that poor people give a hand-up to. The kind of poor that inspires a song about a coat made from scraps, whose patches are sewn so beautifully, and whose lyrics are woven even more beautifully, that the garments of Kings and Queens don’t compare to the wearer, but still inspire a poor bully to remind you of how much better off they are than you. But the thing about being that poor is, you make the most of everything you have and the best of your situation. Happiness comes from contentment, so no matter how poor you are, you can still be happy.

Anyway, I wanted to go ahead and get that out of the way. I don’t see Danielle as Dolly’s niece anymore, and when I see a picture of Dolly in her 30’s, I just see Danielle. The resemblance is striking. I’ve told Danielle that she and I are the same person in some alternate reality. My mom was born a Barton. Both of our high school colors were purple and white. She calls Dolly, Aunt Granny and I called my Great Aunt Gladys, Aunt Grandmaw, just because I couldn’t remember her name once and she looked like grandmaw. My grandaddy was a preacher man, so was one of her great-grandaddies. She’s related to lots of Ogle’s and my nextdoor neighbors growing up were The Fogle’s. And today I’ve got manboobs, and man she’s got boobs! That’s another family condition. One day I was playing around Dollywood and a woman stopped me and asked if I was related to Dolly, ‘cause I also had lots of naturally blonde hair. I didn’t wanna disappoint her, so I said, “A little bit.” I told Danielle about it and after that she started calling me Bruther and I call her Seestur.

Danielle doesn’t take advantage of Dolly’s celebrity. I remember a time when she tried to get away from it, but that’s hard to do. Looking like she does, she’d only fool a blind man, and only then if she didn’t speak. She needed to know that opportunities were available to her because of the hard work she put in, not because of who she was. She’s found balance in that now. She is a Parton, and she embraces that, but she’s also a Noland. Around the hollers of East Tennessee, the Noland’s have played an important role, too.

At some point we ended up working side-by-side. That’s when I really got to see her wit, determination, and drive. She’s tough as nails, yes, the acrylic ones, when she needs to be, and tender and sweet as a ripe peach, even when she doesn’t wanna be. Incredibly smart, generous, and quick-witted, she even cracks herself up most of the time, and it’s often seasoned with just the right amount of sarcasm, making it that much more enjoyable. Spend any time around a Parton and you’ll see they can find the funny in anything, and they’re way smarter than they let on.

Parton graduated from Belmont University in Nashville, TN with a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration. She was the first female on the Parton side to graduate from college. Afterwards she worked in Dolly’s office and spent a short amount of time waiting tables while she got all her ducks in a row, or rather got her frequent flyers lined up down the aisle. She became an airline flight attendant, and it wasn’t long before she was traveling the world. Just a few weeks before 911, her foot was broken by a drink trolly running over it during a flight, so she was back home recuperating that day. Otherwise, she would have been passing through the World Trade Center that morning on her way to catch the flight she was schedule to work. After that, telling the pilot that they were prepared for take-off wasn’t enough for her. She’s more of a I’ll-be-in-charge-of-my-own-destination kinda’ gal. So, what did she do? She joined the Air National Guard and became a pilot. First flying for 118th Airlift Wing in Nashville, then the 123rd Airlift Wing in Louisville, KY, and then back to TN in the 164th Airlift Wing in Memphis. Over a decade ago she became an Aircraft Commander and has operated C-130 and C-5 aircraft around the world and in combat. While not on duty with the Guard, she was back with a commercial carrier, one of the largest in the world, flying an Airbus A320. When I get the chance to hug her neck, I don’t know if I should still call her Seestur or salute her. She’s pretty informal at home though, so it’s a hug full of respect and love.

Proving she’s her own kind of Parton, she’s acquired a few honors of her own from peers and her country, receiving the Combat Action Medal, the Air Medal, is on the Commodore’s List of Flying Excellence for Undergraduate Pilot Training, and is a Distinguished Graduate of C-5 Initial Qualification.

A few years ago, I stopped to drop off some food at her house and she said “Now, you can’t tell anyone.” I agreed as she handed me a shot glass, opened a cabinet door, and poured us each something out of a mason jar. “What is it I can’t tell anyone?” “That I am making liquor, Bruther” to which we both toasted “Liquor, hell, I barely know ‘er!” as we thew it back. I didn’t tell a soul. I never do when someone asks me not to. I’ve even kept a secret my great-grandmother told me over 50 years ago. That one’s going to the grave with me, and we’ll have a good laugh over it someday.

Now don’t worry, I’m not breaking my word to her by telling you now. She’s gone legit and is making it fulltime. She was legit then; I just didn’t know she was doing it. She’s pretty good at keeping a secret too. Danielle opened Shine Girl Distillery in Sevierville, TN, and has just celebrated a full year open for business.

So, how does a graduate with a business degree, that became an airline flight attendant, that became a pilot, and is a decorated veteran serving our country, end up making moonshine you ask? Well, it’s in her blood – both for it and against it. The earliest settlers to the area were of Scots Irish decent, of which Danielle is too, and they brought their love of making spirits with them. Her great-grandfather, Wiley Noland, made hooch in his cabin Just down the holler a piece, Lee Parton was known to make a little too, but just to help support his small family of 14; him, Avie Lee, and their 12 youngin’s. Danielle’s mother is a Noland, and her daddy is Bobby Parton, youngin’ number 5, just after Dolly. The Noland’s and the Parton’s were neighbors and friends before they were kin to one another.

There was another Noland that didn’t look too kindly on moonshiners and what they were doing back in the woods. Ray Noland was the Sheriff of Sevier County throughout three decades; in the 40s, 50s, and the 60s. He felt moonshine was destroying local families and was most known for his efforts to end illegal moonshining in the county. Throughout areas like Pittman Center, English Mountain, Jones Cove, New Center, and Cosby, of which Wiley Noland lived in the center of. It was pretty well known that liquor was being made in the dark of night, and sometimes in the middle of the day if they were back in a holler far enough. Ray was the brother of Wiley, which also meant he knew the Parton’s well.

Ray was known to treat everyone the same, so he often arrested and busted up the stills of many relatives and friends. However, his brother and Lee never were stopped. Perhaps their operations were too small to mess with, and what would it do the family. It wasn’t a great source of income for either of them. There’s a family story that one day Ray, as Sheriff, did come into his brother’s house looking for moonshine. Edith, Wiley’s wife, however had placed the jars they had, in the pantry behind her canned goods. In Danielle’s words, “No respectin’ mountain man would ever touch a woman’s canned food. You don’t mess up a woman’s kitchen!” There it was hidden in plain sight. “Well played, Great-grandma Edith” Danielle said. That reminded me of a story I’d heard growing up from my neighbor, Mary. Her daddy was a moonshiner in Virginia and owned practically one whole side of a mountain. He and her brothers had stills placed in several spots on the mountain. When the Revenuer was spotted, they signaled each other with a gunshot, but nowhere near where a still was. That was to throw him off the trail and to let the others know he was around. The lawman reached the house and went inside. There he found Mary’s stepmother sitting in the kitchen nursing a newborn baby. They looked around and didn’t find a thing, and of course they would’ve never asked her to move, especially with a baby attached. When they left, she stood up to reveal the gallons of moonshine she had covered up with her dress, underneath what

ALMOND “OH JOY” BROWNIES

Original recipe by Jimmy Proffitt, The Appalachian Tale

INGREDIENTS

1 ½ cups white granulated sugar

1 cup plain flour

1 ½ tsps baking powder

¼ tsp salt

¼ cup regular cocoa

Directions

¼ Tbl dark cocoa

¼ cup Shine Girl Coconut Moonshine

1 stick butter, melted

2 large eggs

¼ cup sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare an 8x8 inch pan with cooking spray or line with parchment paper.

Sift together sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, regular cocoa, and dark cocoa. Stir in moonshine, melted butter and eggs. Mix well and spread into pan. Sprinkle with the sliced almonds.

Bake for 25-30 minutes. Let cool and then cut into thirds for 9 brownies or fourths for 16 brownies.

Red Velvet New Fashioned

Recipe courtesy of Shine Girl

INGREDIENTS

2 ounces of Shine Girl Red Velvet Moonshine

1/2 ounce of simple syrup

3-4 drops of orange bitters

Orange peel

Directions

Place 1-2 large ice cubes in a rocks glass. Pour the Shine Girl Red Velvet Moonshine over the ice, then add the syrup and bitters. Stir until well chilled. Express an orange peel over the glass and garnish with it.

Opposite Above: With over a decade in service, Parton has operated C-130 and C-5 aircraft around the world and in combat. Today she still flies, but now it’s commercial cargo planes. Opposite Below: Parton tending to business in her distillery. In the beginning, Parton had her Uncle Dale Noland on this whisky making journey. Together they learned the craft before she opened Shine Girl.

they thought was just couple of old apple crates she was using for a chair. Wiley and his wife also raised bees and sold honey, which their kids still do today at the same site. And he was a part-time deputy for Ray, helping him haul stills down to the courthouse lawn and bust them up. What’s that old saying? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer? Danielle’s Papaw Lee was a sharecropper and later farmed his own land. His moonshining days didn’t last long though, ‘cause Mamaw Avie Lee wasn’t very fond of it. Dolly’s been known to tell the story that when he’d sampled too much “he’d come up the road a singin’ at the top a his lungs” and her mama would holler “Run and git the slop bucket, ch’r daddy’s been a drankin’ again.” I think if Sheriff Noland had a chance to sit down with Danielle today, he’d be just as charmed with her as he was when she was a youngin’.

SO NOW YOU KNOW how Parton got into distilling, but maybe the bigger question is why, so I asked her “Why start makin’ moonshine when you’re already doing so much? Where’d the idea come from?” She said she was driving down the interstate from Nashville to Charlotte to simulator training and saw a billboard for a new distillery. She’d heard that a guy she went to school with had opened one and thought, that’s such a good idea. I’m so glad they did that. Then said to herself “Man, somebody should make our family’s recipe.” So, knowing that Papaw Lee made some and Great-grandaddy Wiley made a little more, as soon as she got home that afternoon, she started researching how to get a trademark. It’s a valuable lesson she’s learned from who she was raised around, that your intellectual property is the most important thing. “You have nothing if you can’t control the name of it.” Claim and protect your property! With that she secured a few marks to lay claim to the Parton name in the spirit’s world, which didn’t come without some challenges. She worked through those, taking up her time and money, and in the end, she said “I still didn’t have a good, peaceful feeling about it. Ok, I have my trademark, but I really don’t like it. At the time I didn’t even like the name, Parton’s Moonshine, because it relied too heavily on my name, and on Dolly’s fame. I mean, I’m not an idiot, Dolly made the name Parton famous. It just is what it is.” Running this through her head on another drive, the name Shine Girl came to her. She said, “that’s the name, that’s it”. She went home that day and secured another trademark.

Using recipes that came down from both sides of her family, Danielle began distilling. She’s steadfast in her rule that she won’t make anything she can’t say she likes, stating “How do you sell that?” She has four flavors of moonshine: Red Velvet, Lavender, Rose’, and Coconut. Therer’s also Vodka and a Limited-Edition Rum. She says “70% of spirit purchase decisions are made by women, why shouldn’t the alcohol they buy be made by a woman, and for them.” You can see her as a guest judge on Master Distiller’s and featured on Moonshiner’s on Discovery channel. She’s often at Shine Girl and happy to sign a bottle and take a selfie. As you leave, she’ll send you off with “Glad you got to see me!” shinegirl.com