There’s No Place Like the Camellia City

By: Kaitlyn Neese

Danan Whiddon, a small-town girl from Greenville, Alabama, proves that there is truly no place like home.

Whiddon grew up in Greenville, riding horses and competing in barrel races. She classified herself as the typical “small town girl”.

Whiddon graduated from Greenville High School in 1988. After graduation, she attended Troy University, received her Bachelor of Arts from University of New Orleans, then received her master’s degree from University of Alabama.

Using her degrees, she taught at Nashville State Community College, University of Alabama, and worked as a homeschool teacher in Nashville, Tenn.

While teaching at Nashville State Community College, she was told that she needed a doctorate’s degree to receive tenure.

“When he took that away from me I was like ‘What am I even doing here?’” Whiddon said.

“There’s a lot of things in life that you think you’re going to do then you turn a certain age and realize you don’t want to do that anymore,” she said.

Whiddon’s interest in natural health began with her own health problems.

“I was having a lot of stomach pain and every time I would go to the doctors they just kept prescribing pain meds that didn’t work” Whiddon said.

She said she started doing her own research and found out that simple things like changing her diet stopped the pains more than the medication.

“So I went on this journey of learning about herbs and natural health,” she said, “I got my certifications and decided to open a business with it.”

She said she missed home, so she used her new business plan as a reason to return to Greenville.

Whiddon moved back to Greenville in June 2017, where she opened Sweet Heart Alabama in an Airstream. Six months later, she decided she needed more space, so she relocated to a building in the heart of Greenville: Main Street.

Whiddon said the people of the city are great, but they still had their doubts.

“When I decided I wanted to open a natural health boutique every single person was like ‘this is never going to work in Greenville,’” she said.

She said did not let that discourage her though because she felt like natural health is something the town needed.

“All it took was for people to come in and talk to me and see what I was doing,” she said, “It was never about my reputation though, it’s about helping people.”

In true small-town fashion, word of mouth changed the town’s opinion. She said once people started hearing about the shop from their friends, they would come in too.

With the support of her city, Whiddon is able to do what she loves in the city she loves.