08/27/2026
Rest in Peace, Dolly Parton! We could not let the week pass without honoring Dolly Parton’s legendary work. Dolly grew up impoverished, in rural Tennessee in a two room cabin, one of 12 children. Despite her challenging and humble beginning, Dolly wrote her first song at 6 years old, began playing guitar by age 7, was on TV by age 10, and began her career as a professional songwriter by the age of 16. In her 60 year career in music, Dolly won 11 Grammy Awards, 3 Emmy Awards, and had 26 songs reach #1 on the country billboards. Among her many, many songs (110 singles!), she wrote the #1 best-selling song by a female artist: I Will Always Love You (also later sung by Whitney Houston). Many of Dolly’s songs told stories often untold with themes that included working women, bullying, su***de, birthing a stillborn child, and poverty. Remarkably, Dolly was also extremely kind and giving. She founded Dollywood Foundation, which provides educational incentives and peer mentoring to children. She also founded the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, which was started to honor her father who never learned to read or write. This library provided millions of books to children worldwide. She has also supported animal conservation funds, wildfire and hurricane relief funds, as well as research funds during the pandemic. We could go on and on, because Dolly Parton’s bright spirit and incredible talent will be missed!
