From Jolene to Two Doors Down, Dolly Parton wrote anthems that have lasted through the decades. The beloved singer-songwriter and country music icon died after a short battle with cancer on August 25, but will never be forgotten. Her career lasted more than six decades – during which she wrote at least 3000 songs, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and starred in more than 12 movies.
In his tribute to the legendary entertainer, her nephew Bryan Seaver said, “Dolly opened doors for generations of singers, songwriters, musicians and dreamers from every walk of life and across every continent. She never saw a door she couldn’t open, and the doors she opened made and changed history.”
Dolly, who was 80 when she died at her home in Nashville, Tennessee, was set to return to Las Vegas in December last year for a residency at Caesars Palace but postponed due to “health challenges”. The eternally optimistic star, however, never thought of retiring.
“Look at all I’ve done in 80 years,” she said recently.
“I feel like I’m just getting started.”
From poverty to rhinestones
Dolly Parton may have been born into unimaginable poverty, but through talent and determination she paved her future with rhinestones.
One of 12 kids raised in a tiny cabin in the foothills of Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains, her father was an illiterate sharecropper and the family struggled to make ends meet.
Her song Coat of Many Colors was inspired by a coat her mother made from scraps of old clothes. Dolly was thrilled to wear it, even though other children mocked her for being poor.
She inherited her mother’s musical talent and wrote her first songs at just five years old. The morning after graduating from high school in 1964, 18-year-old Dolly moved to Nashville to follow her dreams.
Her big break
The day she arrived in the country music capital, she met a handsome asphalt paving contractor called Carl Dean. Two years later, they married and were together until he died last year, aged 82.
Dolly got her big break when she landed a gig on Porter Wagoner’s music, variety and comedy show in 1967. It allowed her to polish her act and gave her not just national exposure but also financial security.
By the early ’70s, however, she’d outgrown the show. Porter brought in his lawyers to try to stop her from leaving, but she eventually freed herself from their arrangement, helped along by Dolly writing a song just for him – I Will Always Love You.
Knowing her worth
In 1974, Elvis Presley wanted to record the song and although it would have meant enormous riches for Dolly, she turned the offer down because Elvis would only record songs that he owned the rights to and she wasn’t willing to give them up.
Her strong business instincts worked out marvellously. In 1992, Whitney Houston recorded it for the soundtrack of The Bodyguard and it shattered sales records around the world.
As her star rose throughout the ’70s, ’80s and beyond, nothing could stop Dolly. She was nominated for 55 Grammys, winning 10, and becoming the third most nominated woman in Grammy history behind Beyoncé and Taylor Swift. She also starred in movies, including 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and Steel Magnolias.
Her signature style
Throughout it all, she never lost her sense of self, her southern charm or her self-deprecating sense of humour. After her gown split down the front when she won entertainer of the year in 1978, she joked, “My daddy said that’s what I got for putting 50 pounds of mud in a five-pound bag!”
Her signature look involved high heels, shoulder pads, massive blonde wigs, and a good dollop of leather and rhinestone.
“It takes a lot of money to look this cheap!” she once quipped, but she never once thought she should change.
“I knew my songs were good, even if I had been ugly as sin. So I thought, ‘Well, I would have probably chosen to look this way even if I had been a waitress.’ I mean, this is my look. I like a lot of makeup. I like a lot of hair. I like flashy clothes. I like to show it off. That’s just who I am.”
A love that lasted decades
Needing only six hours sleep a night, Dolly never stopped pouring herself into her music. “I love to work, I love to make things happen,” she said recently.
She married the notoriously private Carl Dean and their love lasted almost six decades. During an interview with Woman’s Weekly in 2023 she said of their marriage, “We can get through almost anything by taking the light-hearted side about it. We have a lot of respect for each other and I just like him. I think there’s a lot to be said about that.”
Her soulmate died in March last year.
In recent months, Dolly’s health also began to fail, saying recently, “I am dealing with some health issues that I just didn’t pay attention to when I was watching over Carl.”
After her death on August 25, her rep paid tribute to “a rhinestone life that shone bright enough for the world to see”.
