She runs a couple of shell companies.

• Author: Rauch, Joe
• Position: PEOPLE - Rhee Sutton - Peanut Processors Inc. - Southern Peanut Co.

Houston Peanuts, the salted-in-the-shell goobers bagged by Dublin-based Peanut Processors Inc., have been sold in nearly every Major League ballpark sometime or another the past 30 years. But in the middle of the 2001 season, they were dropped from the most famous of all--Yankee Stadium.

It wasn't shocking, says Rhee Sutton, who had taken over the year before as president of Peanut Processors and another family business, Southern Peanut Co. "They're not into salted peanuts in the Northeast. They prefer roasted." That preference didn't extend, however, to one high-profile Yankee fan: Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

Sutton found out about it one day when she returned to her office from lunch. "His office was on the line and wanted seven cases of peanuts. I sold them to him."

He's not the only fan. Sutton's peanuts are sold, under its Houston or private labels, in about 40% of Major League Baseball and National Football League stadiums and about half of the basketball and football venues of Atlantic Coast Conference schools, including UNC Chapel Hill and N.C. State. Her father, Houston Brisson, preceded her as president and got the sports sales started.

Southern Peanut was founded in 1946 by her grandfather, Daniel Brisson. It buys peanuts...