By Sophia Torres
American singer-songwriter, actress, and businesswoman Dolly Parton, best known for her high glam aesthetic and hit songs “Jolene” and “9 to 5,” passed away Tuesday, August 25 at the age of 80. She leaves behind a legacy of being one of the most prominent figures in the country music genre, as well as a cultural icon and renowned philanthropist through her charming personality, business endeavors, and countless humanitarian efforts.
During interviews in the months leading up to her passing, Parton touched on the health problems she had been facing, including struggles with endometriosis, immune and digestive issues, and recurring kidney stones. In a brief statement shared by Parton’s team
on Tuesday, it was confirmed that the glittering country stars’ passing had followed after a cancer diagnosis.
“Our beloved Dolly Parton spent her life and career bringing joy, laughter, hope and integrity into everything she touched,” the statement said. “After bravely facing a brief battle with cancer, Dolly departed her Earthly life today at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center surrounded by loved ones.”
Parton was famously from the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, growing up in extreme poverty in a one-room cabin on the banks of Little Pigeon River with her family of fourteen. She began to form her love for music at a very young age, sparked by her mother singing traditional Appalachian folk songs and church hymns to her. Parton wrote her first song, “Puppy Love,” at age five, learned to play guitar by age eight, and eventually was singing regularly for local radio and television shows by the time she was ten in the 1950s.
Right after graduating high school, Parton moved to Nashville and was signed to her first record label that she was shortly dropped from after failing to chart. However she would later find great success by becoming a regular performer on the Porter Wagoner show, hitting milestones such as entering the top ten in the Billboard’s country charts, releasing her first solo single “Just Because I’m a Woman,” and winning awards like the Country Music Association award for Vocal Group of the Year.
It wasn’t until a tearful departure from the Porter Wagoner show in 1974 though when Parton truly exploded into stardom. Her first self produced album “New Harvest…First Gathering” went platinum, making Parton the first female country artist to sell one million copies for an album. For her other album “Here You Come Again,” Parton won her first Grammy for Best County Vocal Performance by a Female, and later also earned several Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for her role in her film “9 to 5,” which also reached number one as a song on both the country and pop charts.
Parton would continually break boundaries with her music and image, often spinning old fashioned expectations on how women in the music industry should behave through her crude self deprecating humor and hyper-feminine aesthetic, characterized by huge blonde wigs, bold makeup, and flamboyant rhinestoned Western wear.
With her music career on a skyrocketing trajectory, Parton went on to explore different business enterprises, notably opening Dollywood in 1986, a theme park near her hometown in Tennessee. The theme park, designed to highlight parts of the culture and heritage of the Great Smoky Mountains, achieved massive success, amassing over 1 million guests during its very first year of operation and generating massive financial gain for the rural communities surrounding the area.
In addition to her music career and newfound success with Dollywood, Parton also began to focus heavily on her philanthropic projects. In 1988, Parton launched The Dollywood Foundation, created in the hopes of inspiring children to achieve educational success. The foundation was greatly successful, reducing local high school drop out rates from 35% to 6%. Parton also opened the Eagle Mountain Sanctuary in Dollywood aimed at sheltering non-releasable bald eagles, and in 2020, she donated $1 million dollars to Vanderbilt University Medical Center to support research on COVID-19. Most famously though, Parton founded the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, a book gifting program that mails free books to children in participating areas in the hopes of sparking a love for reading among them. The program would later expand globally, gifting over 300 million books worldwide.
Along with her acts of charity, Parton showed overall immense support for marginalized communities. She consistently advocated for the LGBTQ+ community, preaching that everyone was deserving of love and acceptance. She also publicly expressed support for the Black Lives Matter movement, taking proactive measures such as removing Confederate imagery from her dinner attraction Dolly Parton’s Stampede.
Her countless acts of kindness and monumental achievements in the music industry made her into a cultural sensation around the world, accumulating fans of all different kinds of backgrounds. From old grandmothers playing her in the forests of the Smokies, to young folk in urban cities who grew up listening to her, Parton had the incredible power to connect people together over her.
With her music and actions, Parton has forever influenced the lives of so many throughout her remarkable life, creating a legacy that will undoubtedly continue to inspire countless generations to come.
The Plaid Press 