‘It takes a lot of money to look this cheap,’ Dolly Parton joked about her appearance.
By Miles Salter
Feature photo by Kingkongphoto & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel Maryland, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The country music star, who has died at the age of 80, managed to mix girl-next-door openness with a bit of spicy glamour: big hair, big eyelashes, lots of denim and rhinestones.
Parton’s early life was marked by poverty, but family and ethics were important. Born in January 1946, she was the fourth of twelve children by Robert Lee Parton Sr. and Avie Lee Parton. The family, residing in Locust Ridge, Tennessee, were very poor but her father had a strong work ethic. Parton’s song Coat Of Many Colors was written about the jacket that her mother made for her from a patchwork of multiple shades. The kids at school laughed at her: being poor was a stigma she did not forget.
Music was around her. Her mother played guitar and sang. Other relatives sang gospel and traditional Appalachian songs. Dolly appeared on radio shows as a child. She moved to Nashville when she was just eighteen, determined to find her way into music.
The day she arrived, she met her husband to be, Carl Dean, outside the Wishy Washy Laundrette. She liked the fact that he looked at her face (‘a rare thing for me’ she said, hinting at her voluminous bosom). They married in 1966 and remained together until Carl’s death in 2025.
She signed as an artist to Monument Records when she was nineteen. Carl, who ran an asphalt paving company, did not particularly like showbusiness. After taking him to an awards ceremony, he requested that he never go to another one. He didn’t interfere in her music career.
Parton was involved with a musical partnership with Porter Wagoner for eight years, starting in 1967. She wrote I Will Always Love You as a way of saying goodbye to him. In the end, she became such a big star that following her own path was inevitable. Jolene, released in January 1974, was a huge hit and became part of the canon of classic pop-country songs. The song was inspired by a real-life incident. An attractive bank teller showed an interest in Carl Dean. ‘He just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention,’ Parton explained later.
In the song, the narrator, Dolly, pleads with another woman not to steal her husband. The song worked because it told a story, had a strong melody, and appealed to one of the most primal human emotions: fear. The song would be much discussed in the years to come (if the bloke were cheating, why fight for him?) but it’s become one of the classic country songs.
Here You Come Again, released in 1977, helped her to crossover from country to pop, reaching number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Parton was relieved when the track benefitted from a steel guitar, so she could avoid accusations of deserting country.
She said she was not a feminist, but the theme song to the film 9 to 5, with its clever use of typewriters at the start, voiced frustration about the limits of women’s careers. ‘Want to move ahead,’ the lyrics went, ‘but the boss won’t seem to let me.’ In the film, Parton played alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin as one of three frustrated female workers. She struck gold again with Islands In The Stream, a duet with Kenny Rogers. It was another big hit.
Parton had a folksy way of communicating which was authentic. It didn’t mean she was dumb: she read widely and was an astute businesswoman. She founded Dollywood, a theme park. It had previously been known as Silver Dollar City when Parton invested in it in the mid-1980s.
Visitors to Dollywood could gawp at a replica of the two-room shack Parton grew up in. Her tour bus, which did several hundred thousand miles, was also on display. The theme park was a large source of dollars. By the time of her death, Parton was immensely wealthy.
She became an enthusiastic philanthropist. In 1991, she made a promise to children from the area she had grown up in that if they graduated from high school, she would give each student $500. The county’s high school dropout rate shrank from 35% to 6%. She also sponsored the Imagination Library, which encouraged reading and literacy in children. Since 1995, the charity has sent out over 300m books.
Her community-mindedness and vision is in stark contrast to many less generous stars. Her life was not without its sadness, though. Due to health complications, Dolly and Carl could not have children of their own.
She maintained an interest in charity. When Whitney Houston struck gold with a cover of Parton’s I Will Always Love You, Parton invested in the black community in Nashville. She was also generous to the LGBT community.
She enjoyed a life away from music, starring in films such as 9 to 5 and Steel Magnolias.
In 2014, she played the ‘legends’ slot at Glastonbury to a vast crowd, estimated to be 180,000 people. Glastonbury boss Michael Eavis was thrilled to secure her services.
Her final album was Rockstar (2023), an album of cover versions with guest appearances by Paul McCartney, Debbie Harry and more.
Even Donald Trump, not a man given to bouts of generosity, has paid tribute to Parton, suggesting that flags in America will fly at half-mast in towns across America.
Dolly Rebecca Parton, singer, songwriter, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. Born 19 January 1946; died 25 August 2026.
Miles Salter has contributed to York Calling regularly since 2020. He fronts the band Miles and The Chain Gang. His book about The Pretenders, A Dangerous Band, is out on 1 November 2026.
