Ep. 3 - Reelfoot Forward - From Prom Queens to Drag Queens and Everything in Between

Reelfoot Forward

Paige Burcham Dennis, a fashion entrepreneur based in Union City, Tenn., welcomes entertainers, celebrities, pageant contestants and others from around the world to Joann’s, her shop where “glitter runs through their veins.” She helps dress and style customers, most who become close friends, for their appearances in everything from music videos and movies to pageants and proms, and anywhere else making a fashion statement can make a difference. She talks about her own first beauty pageant that launched her mother, the shop’s founder Joann, on the path to eventual success in the gown business, growing up in a small town and why, after finding success in fashion-forward cities around the world, she returned home to Union City to work and raise her young children. Later, DPA docent Travis Crum takes listeners back to 1908 when a dispute over the title to Reelfoot Lake and the surrounding land led to a period of murder and mayhem by a vigilante group known as the Night Riders of Reelfoot Lake.