According to his obituary, Thornton was a war veteran and retired electrician who kept a liquor store on the side to support his family.
He served as a minesweeper for the Navy.
He was known in the Delta region for his award-winning Maria’s Famous Hot Tamales, which he began cooking in 1984, named after his wife, Mary.
According to Southern Foodways, Shine entered the hot tamale business with a jerry-rigged recipe he got from a friend, and added his own spin to it.
Thornton earned his nickname Shine in high school when he began picking out the notes to ‘You are My Sunshine’ during the intermission of a performance.
Members of the band started calling him Sunshine and eventually shortened it to Shine, according to his obituary.
His sunny disposition was still with him as he grew older. According to the website he would sell his snacks out of the custom built kitchen in his home and sit with customers, often playing the fiddle to entertain his guests.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z2j0IULjUN
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I again find myself speechless with the contrast between good and evil in this story. Listen to that youtube vid and you'll hear the old man talking about his 'hottamales' he pronounces it as one word and it must be a 'Mississippi thing'
The idea of
Orphanages,
Reform Schools,
Three strikes / you're out
Life in Prison
Public Execution
is growing on me.
I think Texas is doing a lot of things right...including being #1 in executing murderers.
Why wasn't the old man carrying?