August 25, 2026
It’s truly a dark day for the entertainment world as we lost a music icon with the passing of Dolly Parton at the at 80. Over the years I’m not sure there have been too many performers who carried as much talent and charm as Dolly Parton. My first memories of the country superstar was on the Porter Wagoner show where she would sing alongside Wagoner while he hawked Breeze laundry detergent. Then there was the 1970’s TV show Dolly! I even remember when she hosted the Midnight Special one Friday night belting out “Two doors down, they’re laughing and drinkin’, and having a party!” My favorite memory of the music star though was when I saw her play the Winstar Casino. I just knew the lady as a singer, but as she kept pulling instrument after instrument onto the stage, I discovered she was quite a musician as well.
During her performance she gave the story of how she wrote the song Jolene about some bank teller who was paying a little too much attention to her husband, and that was just one of her stories. She also told how her grandfather objected to her wearing makeup, thinking it went against his religious beliefs. Dolly revealed how she pleaded with the man, saying that she indeed wanted to go to heaven, but did she have to look like hell to get there? My favorite Dolly quote was when she thanked us for coming to her show by saying, “It cost a lot of money to look this cheap.”
While camping up in the Smokey Mountains, Margaret and I spent a day at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, which is basically everything Dolly. I generally tell everyone that Dollywood is like Six Flags Over Texas but has more trees, better food, and a whole lot of Dolly! Of course there’s the Dolly museum that’s loaded with dresses, tons of awards, and Dolly, Dolly, Dolly! There’s even a photo of her sitting in a chair writing the words to the song 9 to 5 while on the set of the movie 9 to 5. There’s even a replica of the one room house that she shared with her parents and 11 brothers and sisters. Speaking of relatives, the park held a musical show of Dolly’s relatives. After a while, I was starting to believe that everyone who worked at the park held a little Dolly family resemblance.
Dolly was well known for her big hair, her big clothes, her big personality, and her big…well, let’s just say she had a look of her own. But mostly she was known for her big talent. Even though she appeared in over 30 movies, one of her biggest talents was staying married to the same guy for 59 years, even though he pretty much stayed away from her music world. Everyone else seemed to be into Dolly’s music, and even though Whittney Houston did okay with Dolly’s song I Will Always Love You, I still prefer Dolly Parton’s version. Rumor has it, while Kenny Rogers was recording the song Islands in the Stream as a solo, his producer at the time Barry Gibb (yes, the Bee Gees guy) felt that the song sounded flat and blurted out, “What we need is Dolly Parton.” And I guess the guy was right. Everything was better with Dolly.
I watched Dolly Parton grow from a regular on the Porter Wagoner show to one of the most well-known and successful, as well as one of the richest, women in entertainment history. She will be missed. R.I.P. Dolly Parton.
Leave a comment