There’s a reason every Dolly Parton song feels like it finds a home in the deepest part of your soul. Writing from her heart, she set out to make a career in music. Instead, she changed the world, and she did it by always being herself.
“I never do anything that I don’t pray about,” Dolly said. “I always ask God to … guide me to do things that would glorify him and to uplift mankind. That’s my mission.”
Whether she was playing the sassy Doralee Rhodes in “9 to 5” and threatening to turn a coworker “from a rooster to a hen with one shot,” dishing the recipe on her cuppa-cuppa cake in “Steel Magnolias,” belting out “I Will Always Love You,” or crooning over that woman “Jolene,” Dolly felt like one of us. Because she was.
The fact that she could look like she did — and still relate to anyone — is the key to her magic. “My boobs are fake, my hair’s fake but what is real is my voice and my heart,” she famously said. She was so wholesomely over-the-top, we couldn’t resist falling in love.
Dolly wrote more than 3,000 songs during her lifetime — if anyone was counting. “I started playing guitar when I was seven years old, and I’ve been writing serious songs ever since,” she said. “I’ve got songs stuck everywhere. I pull out a drawer to get some panties … I’ll find a song in there.”
There’s no way to know whether she recorded them all. But from the sound of it, maybe Dolly’s run isn’t entirely over. Even her upcoming Broadway show “DOLLY: A True Original Musical” will feature new songs. Now, it looks like opening night will have to honor what would have been her 81st birthday on January 19, 2027.
You can be sure Dolly fans are gonna get through this; we have Dolly to sing all the sad songs with us.
Along with the legendary music catalog that earned her 11 Grammys, 10 Country Music Awards, four American Music Awards, and induction into the Country Music, Rock and Roll, and Songwriters Hall of Fame, Dolly graced the silver screen in over 12 theatrical releases, starring alongside Sylvester Stallone, Burt Reynolds, Lily Tomlin, and Jane Fonda — in addition to her countless made-for-TV heart-warmers.
Dolly also left her footprint behind the scenes, elevating scores of other artists’ careers. Whitney Houston leveraged Dolly’s timeless songwriting for her version of “I Will Always Love You” for the film “The Bodyguard.” And as godmother to Miley Cyrus, Dolly championed the up-and-comer by appearing in “Hannah Montana” and supporting her entry into music.
There will never be another Queen of Country Music. After rising from poverty to stardom living a real life American dream, Dolly cemented her legacy over her 70-year career by paying it back to everyone she met.
Once Dolly bought Silver Dollar City in the late 1980s, the grounds were officially reopened as Dollywood. Dotted with Dolly’s signature butterflies — and regularly beating out other parks like Disney, Universal, and LegoLand as a crowd favorite — the theme park continues to delight families by celebrating the bluegrass and Southern food of the Appalachians.
This was the stuff Dolly knew best. Her earliest years were spent in a one-bedroom rural Tennessee cabin in the 1940s, as the fourth-eldest of 12 children. At age six she was singing in church, and by the time she turned 13, she had co-written her first song and was introduced by Johnny Cash to perform on stage at The Grand Ole Opry. She got three encores.
“As I heard the band play my introduction, I lifted my head and looked up toward the lights,” Dolly remembered. “I smiled at the people in the balcony and then let ‘er rip.”
After building an extraordinarily successful career, Dolly funneled a large part of her wealth back into the community, aiming to empower education through her Dollywood Foundation. Her Buddy Program initiative slashed school dropout rates in her hometown of Sevier County, Tennessee, by giving “$500 to every seventh and eighth-grader who finished high school.” The buddy part involved two students pledging to get each other across the line.
Dolly understood the power of bringing people together, whether they liked it or not. She largely flew above political discourse, preferring to stay out of the fray. All three times she was offered the greatest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom (twice from President Trump, once from President Biden), she declined in case it be perceived as a political choice.
“I don’t work for those awards. It’d be nice, but I’m not sure that I even deserve it. But that’s a nice compliment for people to think that I might deserve it,” she said.
As the nation lowered its flags to half-staff in honor of the legendary star, loved ones shared Dolly’s final wish to “rest in a beautiful bed of plush cotton because after a life wearing heavy rhinestones, she finally deserves to be comfortable.” It was one last playful quip from the woman famous for joking, “It takes a lot of time and money to look this cheap, honey.”
She was light, she was love, she was country music. We’ll miss you, Dolly. “Always, Always.”
***
This article is part of Upstream, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
.png)
.png)
