Dolly Parton: From the Tennessee Mountains to Country Music Legend
Dolly Parton is one of the most recognizable figures in the history of country music. Singer, songwriter, actress, businesswoman and philanthropist, she built a career that crossed generations without forgetting where she came from.
Her story began far away from Hollywood and the bright lights of Nashville.
Dolly Rebecca Parton was born January 19, 1946, in Locust Ridge, Tennessee. She was the fourth of twelve children in a family that had very little money.
What they did have was music.
Dolly grew up around old mountain songs, gospel music and church singing. She began writing songs when she was a child and quickly realized that music might become her way into a bigger world.
Her poor childhood would later become some of her best songwriting material.
One of the greatest examples was “Coat of Many Colors.” The song tells the story of a coat Dolly’s mother made for her from pieces of cloth and how other children laughed at her for wearing it.
Instead of hiding her poverty when she became successful, Dolly wrote about it.
That honesty became one of her greatest strengths.
GETTING TO NASHVILLE
Dolly began performing publicly as a child. By the time she was ten, she was appearing on television in Knoxville, Tennessee.
At thirteen, she performed at the Grand Ole Opry.
After graduating from high school in 1964, Dolly headed for Nashville.
She wasn’t going there with a backup plan. She wanted to become a songwriter and recording artist.
Like most Nashville stories, success didn’t happen overnight.
She recorded songs and worked as a songwriter before receiving the opportunity that changed her career.
In 1967, Dolly joined Porter Wagoner’s television show.
Porter Wagoner was already a major country star, and appearing alongside him introduced Dolly to a much larger audience. The two recorded successful duets and became one of country’s best-known musical partnerships.
But Dolly wasn’t going to remain somebody else’s duet partner forever.
She wanted her own career.
BECOMING A STAR
During the 1970s, Dolly Parton’s solo career took off.
Songs such as “Joshua,” “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors,” “Love Is Like a Butterfly” and “I Will Always Love You” established her as much more than a television personality.
She was becoming one of Nashville’s great songwriters.
“I Will Always Love You” was written when Dolly decided to leave Porter Wagoner’s show and pursue her career independently.
It wasn’t really an angry breakup song.
It was a goodbye.
Years later, Whitney Houston turned the song into one of the biggest recordings in pop music history.
But underneath Houston’s enormous voice and production was still something very simple: a country songwriter writing about leaving someone she cared about.
That’s the beauty of a great song.
It can survive almost any musical style.
DOLLY GOES BEYOND COUNTRY
Dolly could have remained strictly a country singer, but she wasn’t afraid to take chances.
During the late 1970s, she crossed into pop music with songs including “Here You Come Again.”
Then Hollywood came calling.
In 1980, she starred with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in the movie “9 to 5.”
Dolly also wrote and recorded the title song.
“9 to 5” became another enormous hit and one of the most recognizable songs of her career.
She later appeared in movies including “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” and “Steel Magnolias.”
Some traditional country fans didn’t always understand the pop records, Hollywood movies, huge wigs, rhinestones and glamorous image.
Dolly didn’t worry much about it.
She understood something important about surviving in the entertainment business.
You can respect where you came from without staying in the same place forever.
THE BUSINESSWOMAN
The blonde wigs and country-girl jokes sometimes made it easy for people to underestimate Dolly Parton.
That was probably a mistake.
Behind the image was a very smart businesswoman.
In 1986, the Dollywood theme park opened under her name in East Tennessee.
Instead of becoming successful and forgetting the mountains where she grew up, Dolly invested in the area.
Dollywood eventually became one of Tennessee’s biggest tourist attractions and a major employer.
Dolly understood branding long before every musician started talking about building a brand.
She knew exactly what “Dolly Parton” represented.
And she never seemed afraid to make fun of herself.
THE IMAGINATION LIBRARY
Dolly’s legacy also reaches far beyond entertainment.
In 1995, she created Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
The program provides free books to young children. It began in her home county in Tennessee and eventually expanded around the world.
Her father helped inspire the idea because he had never learned to read and write.
There is something fitting about that.
A woman who made her living writing words eventually used her success to help millions of children learn to read them.
THE SONGWRITER BEHIND THE SUPERSTAR
With all the wigs, movies, businesses and celebrity, it’s sometimes easy to overlook the most important part of Dolly Parton’s career.
She is a songwriter.
And a damn good one.
She understood that great songwriting doesn’t require complicated language.
Tell the truth.
Give people a picture they can see.
Give them a line they can remember.
Then get out of the song’s way.
“Jolene” is a perfect example. The idea couldn’t be much simpler: a woman begging another woman not to take her man.
But simplicity is often where great songwriting lives.
Dolly could write about poverty, love, jealousy, heartbreak, faith, family, work and growing up in the Tennessee mountains.
Her songs sounded personal, but millions of people could hear their own lives in them.
That is the trick every songwriter is chasing.
DOLLY PARTON’S LEGACY
Dolly Parton has been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, Songwriters Hall of Fame and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
But awards don’t completely explain her longevity.
She survived decades of changes in country music.
Styles changed.
Radio changed.
Nashville changed.
Audiences changed.
Dolly kept going.
The little girl from the Tennessee mountains became one of the most famous entertainers in the world without pretending she had been born anywhere else.
Maybe that’s the biggest lesson in Dolly Parton’s story.
You don’t have to erase where you came from to get somewhere else.
Sometimes where you came from is the best story you’ve got.