Life Story: Dolly Parton (1946– )

Dolly Rebecca Parton was born on January 19, 1946, in Sevier County, Tennessee. The Partons were a farming family, and Dolly had eleven siblings. 

From a young age, it was clear that Dolly had a talent for music. After she received a guitar when she was eight, she started writing her own music. She sang and played the guitar on local radio and television from the age of 10. When Dolly was only 13 years old, she first performed at the Grand Ole Opry, a famous weekly radio broadcast for country music. After graduating from high school in 1964, Dolly moved to Nashville, the country music capital, to start a career as a musician.

On her first day in Nashville, Dolly met Carl Dean. It was love at first sight for Dolly. They quickly grew close, but after a few months of dating, Carl joined the army. They agreed to get married when he returned. While Carl was away, Dolly focused on her music career. When they married on May 30, 1966, she made it clear that she would not become a housewife and would continue her music career. 

Porter Wagoner, a country music star, recognized Dolly’s talent. She appeared on his television show, which aired all over the United States. This helped her land her first record deal with RCA Records, releasing songs with Porter.

Dolly started her solo career in 1974 and quickly produced hit songs like “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You.” She famously wrote those two songs on the same day. The Country Music Association named her Female Vocalist of the Year in 1975 and 1976.

From the start of her career, Dolly showed she had a strong sense for business. She always owned the rights to the music she produced, earning millions of dollars in royalties.

In 1977, Dolly made the crossover to pop music. Her song “Here You Come Again” reached number three on the pop music charts, as well as the number one spot in the country music charts. She won her first Grammy Award that same year for Best Female Country Vocal Performance.

Dolly’s public image was as famous as her music, with platinum-blonde dyed hair and a large bust. She was open about the adjustments she has made to her appearance, including plastic surgery. As a young girl, she did not find herself naturally pretty. With fame came attention and money, and Dolly made herself look like what she, as a self-proclaimed country girl, thought was glamorous. Her surgically enhanced appearance contributed to her iconic status in American culture.

Dolly made her Hollywood debut in 1980, starring in the movie 9 to 5, a comedy about three working women who dream about revenge on their awful boss. It is a powerful movie about women fighting sexual harassment at work and has a feminist message. In addition to acting in the movie, Dolly also wrote music for the soundtrack. The title song reached the top on both the pop and country music charts, and she was nominated for an Academy Award for it.

Her next movie was The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, released in 1982. Dolly received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress. She continued to write country music as well, achieving a hit with country music star Kenny Rogers in 1983 called “Islands in the Stream.”

In 1984, Dolly was diagnosed with uterine cancer. A routine surgery would prevent the spread of the disease, but it would be emotionally challenging for Dolly. She underwent a hysterectomy, which meant that she would never be able to have children. This was devastating news for Dolly, who had always wanted to become a mother. She fell into a deep depression and even contemplated suicide.

Dolly focused her energy on a new business opportunity. For years, she had been dreaming about opening a theme park in rural Tennessee where she grew up. Because of her upbringing in a poor area, she wanted to give back to her community when she became successful. Dolly decided to open the theme park to provide jobs and bring tourists to the area. The increased tax revenue would also allow the local government to provide more funding for schools and infrastructure. Dolly purchased an existing frontier-themed amusement park only ten miles from her childhood home, running it with the original owners. She called it Dollywood.

The vision Dolly had for the theme park was closely connected to her childhood community. The residents of rural Tennessee were often stereotyped by other Americans as ignorant and having poor manners. Dolly wanted to show visitors from all over the country that they were smart and resourceful. 

With her earnings from her music career, Dolly spent between $40 and $50 million on rebranding the park as Dollywood. But the surrounding roads were in poor condition, ill-prepared for hundreds of thousands of visitors to access the park. Undeterred, Dolly went to the local city government of Pigeon Forge, where Dollywood was located, and the Tennessee state government. She argued that the business would bring much-needed jobs to the high unemployment area. Her arguments were persuasive. The state contributed $1.5 million, and the city gave Dollywood another $500,000. Today, there are around 4,000 employees at the park. 

Dolly’s music gained renewed popularity in 1992 when Whitney Houston recorded a cover of Dolly’s song “I Will Always Love You” for the soundtrack of the movie The Bodyguard. It became one of the best-selling songs of all time and introduced Dolly’s music to a new generation. When journalists asked Dolly if she was ever jealous of Whitney’s success with her song, Dolly said that was not the case at all. She earned all the money for writing and publishing the song because she had always protected the rights to her music.

Dolly’s work as a musician has been recognized by many awards. She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999. The Library of Congress awarded her the Living Legend medal for her contributions to American culture in 2004, and she was also awarded the National Medal of the Arts in 2005 and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2006.

In addition to providing jobs at Dollywood, Dolly wanted to do more for the families in the Tennessee county where she grew up. She founded Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in 1995. The charity distributes free books to children in the community. The program was so successful that it went national in 2000 and expanded abroad in 2006. By 2020, the Imagination Library had distributed over 150 million children’s books.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dolly contributed $1 million to the development of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. When she received the vaccine herself in March 2021, she said she was getting “a dose of her own medicine.” 

Dolly Parton and her husband, Carl, live in Nashville. She continues to devote her time to music and charity.

• hysterectomy: A surgical procedure in which a woman’s uterus is removed.
• royalty: A payment made to writers or musicians every time someone performs their song.
• uterine cancer: Cancer of the uterus.