Shannon was born in Stuttgart Arkansas and grew up in the South. His love of flying led him to a career in the Air Force and the Air Force Reserve and also employment at Delta Airlines. Nora was born in Honolulu Hawaii. Her dads career in the military led her to Missouri, where she joined the Air Force Reserve to get through college. There she also met Shannon. They fell in love and married. Their Air Force Reserve jobs and family ties kept them in the Kansas City area. There Nora sold real estate and attended law school while Shannon worked locally in the reserves and commuted to Atlanta for his job at Delta Airlines.

Finally, with Shannon having retired from the Air Force Reserve and the kids off to college, they decided to move to Atlanta. They settled in Castleberry Hill, a Historic Landmark District located in downtown Atlanta.  Shannon was still working for Delta Airlines flying to Europe but Nora had not resumed her law or real estate career. She decided they needed to something else.

Shannon had always wanted to own a bar and their shared love of travel, good food and wine got them to thinking about re-creating in Castleberry Hill something similar to the small Tapas bars they had seen in Spain. They started researching and through trial and error, and a significant amount of regulatory hoops, they found that they could only open a Wine Specialty Shop.  So they did.  It is named WineShoe.