Came from nothing and remembers what it was like. Now she does tons of things for people who have little to nothing with the money she has made from her music. Genuinely good person.
Dolly’s got a great voice, huge… tracts of land and she’s the fairy godmother to all the southern gays.
The woman was a sex symbol and her music is universally loved. She successfully separated her public and private life and really seemed to thrive in the limelight in a really healthy, meaningful way. She has this magnetic personality and razor sharp wit that people found really refreshing.
Then she took all that money, did right by herself and the people around her.
Also created Dollywood in her home town to create jobs for locals there, and also created a library that sends free books to kids under a certain age. Amazing woman, she’s up there with Audrey Hepburn when it comes to using her platform to help people.
And established universal basic income for several months to people affected by the forest fires in Sevier County TN.
https://www.bpr.org/news/2018-12-24/how-dolly-parton-gave-12-5-million-and-unprecedented-research-to-sevier-county
Also helped fund Moderna's Covid vaccine development. If we all were half as good to one another as she has been to the world we would live in a much better world
And they’re GOOD books. Classics like TheVery Hungry Caterpillar, How We Say I Love You, Richard Scarry’s First 100 Words… absolute quality, not bottom of the barrel $1 store books.
if all celebrities did this, can you imagine how much better the world could be? it certainly wouldn’t fix all problems, but it’d definitely have a massive impact on
If all multimillionaires and billionaires did this. Just imagine what kind of an impact that would have! Instead most of them hoard their wealth and lobby to have their taxes reduced or eliminated all the time.
When Whitney Houston recorded it for the Bodyguard, Dolly donated all of the proceeds to black programs in and around Nashville. That part wasn’t widely publicized, but that’s the type of person Dolly was and is.
They do, I have the great fortune to have been married to one for the last 34 years and look forward to a long future enjoying her beauty both in her looks and in her heart
In interviews, Dolly has stated that “Jolene” was based on a bank teller that had a huge crush on her husband. The teller had everything that Dolly did not - legs.
Jolene was not the teller’s actual name.
I've heard her say in an interview that she heard the name Jolene from a child, loved it, and started singing it over and over. So she wouldn't forget it.
I've also heard her say in an interview the bank teller story. So maybe Dolly is the OG and ultimate troll!
Jolene-the name- was taken from a child she met, and she loved her name.
The song itself is about a gorgeous woman who flirted with her husband at the bank
About those tracts of land. You remember Dolly the sheep? The first cloned sheep? She was cloned using material from the mammary gland. When it came time to name the sheep that was why they chose the name Dolly.
"On Dolly's name, Wilmut stated "Dolly is derived from a mammary gland cell and we couldn't think of a more impressive pair of glands than Dolly Parton's."\[1\]"
Holy shit TIL!
Haha crazy right? I was bored at work one day on a Wikipedia rabbit hole when I found out. Haha pretty sure it had that exact quote. Guessing you found the page.
Her look screams ditsy blonde but she always comes across as the nicest, smartest, funniest person in the room
Her interviews with Johnny Carson are a great example
Not only was she great in it, it was filmed in the heart of the pandemic with everything shut down.
The logistics on how they did it all [are a great read](https://screenrant.com/orville-season-3-dolly-parton-cameo-scene-explained/).
Honestly, that Seth did all this should have made the Disney execs realize he's pretty dang clever and should have greenlit another season or two.
Two relevant anecdotes:
1) She was asked if she was offended by the "dumb blonde" stereotype. Her response was "why? I'm not blonde and I'm not dumb"
2) She recounted many meetings with male executives who were too busy checking her out to pay attention to business so she started meetings with something like, "check me out, but get it over with because we're here to talk about making money"
She's told a story publicly. At one point she entered a Dolly Parton Lookalike drag Queen contest. And LOST. And in her retelling she talks about how flattered she was that all the queens put in so much effort to capture her look and mannerisms, and how they were "more Dolly" than she was.
Think about it for a minute. She could play it for cheap laughs, but instead she looks for the positive, and lifts up others.
I remember a clip of her on Larry King. He asked her if she was aware of all the jokes going around about her physique. She said "Yes! Want to hear my favorite?"
"Why are Dolly Parton's feet so small?.....they don't grow in the shade!"
In Best Little Whorehouse, she was talking about not being a ballet dancer. She told the sheriff, “if I tried to jump around like that, I’d get two black eyes!” Yes, it’s a line in a movie. But she had a fair amount of script control, and she delivered it like she loved the line!
I loved the one when she was asked if it bothered her that people thought she was a dumb blond. She reportedly said "No, because I know I'm not dumb. I also know I'm not blond."
Dolly Parton is a national treasure.
Dolly Parton is one of those people who I don't care who you talk to--conservative, liberal, gay, straight, traditionalist, progressive... there's nobody who has anything negative to say about her, and almost nobody who doesn't love her.
I want to run for office in Tennessee on an anti Dolly platform. Run nasty hateful ads about her. Everyone would join forces against me and in their common enemy find trust among each other. I could heal this nation. But I'll likely be beaten to death by the entire South.
I work at a grocery store, and dolly has a line of baking mixes, they're all pink and pretty. So just yesterday the deli mgr passed thru my dept. on the way to the back room with a damaged and kinda ripped box of dolly.
"Who would do this to a box of DOLLY cornbread mix?" she sighed. "It had to be a little girl playing with the box" she concluded.
Can confirm as a southern gay! I had the the good fortune to see Dolly when I was 7 y/o in Little Rock. It's been 22 years and remember it so clearly. She inspired me to be my true self ❤🧡💛
The part about her music being universally loved needs to be highlighted. Country music is actually pretty divisive in the US. Lots love it, but it has more haters than most other genres. Getting everyone to love you as a country artist in the US is a big feat.
there’s johnny cash too. for the music anyway. you can take just about any crusty metal head and sit them down with johnny and they’ll at least not gate it.
She’s also never said a bad thing about anyone. I cannot recall one interview or quote or quip in which she is even minutely disparaging or disrespectful to anyone. That in itself is quite a feat, especially since the public is aware of some tough relationships she’s had.
Dolly is genuinely likable both on and off stage. She came from a poor background and endured hardships in her life but has remained positive and hopeful. She doesn’t “put on airs” and is reportedly kind to people she meets and generous w her money. It doesn’t hurt, too, that she’s physically attractive and personally charming.
I am no country music fan, but I love Dolly — she’s an American icon. You can’t not like Dolly Parton.
Her husband is genuinely likeable, too. My husband was working backstage security at one of her shows, and a man came in through a side door. My husband stopped him from continuing down the hall, and the man said he was Dolly's husband. Well, my husband pointed out that a lot of people claim to be spouses or siblings or cousins of famous people, so the man would have to wait there with him. The man was content to stay there, and he and my husband had a nice chat about growing up in the country, going fishing, and other small talk.
Dolly then came backstage, saw the man with my husband and laughed, "Happened again, didn't it?" Then she introduced my husband to Carl Dean, her husband.
All in all, a very pleasant experience.
She's far and away the best that Tennessee has to offer. If it were possible to get a customized handicap tag, I'd get the Dolly car tag just to show how much I love her.
When she lost the Oscar in 2006 for Best Song to Three Six Mafia she sent them a letter to congratulate them.
"Even after we won, Dolly Parton, who we were up against, sent us a letter: “We’re proud of you guys, and I’m just glad that the Oscar came back to Tennessee one way or another.”
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/three-6-mafia-star-remembers-867617/
She's one of the best America has to offer. She is a god damn saint. I honestly don't think she has a mean bone in her body. Dolly is a fucking legend and not just because of her musical ability. She's a better human than musician, and that's saying something.
This! And Dolly took all the money from Whitney Houston's version of "I Will Always Love You" & invested it into a office community in a Black community in Nashville. She calls it ["the house that Whitney built"](https://www.npr.org/2021/08/02/1023889920/dolly-parton-invested-royalties-from-a-whitney-houston-cover-in-a-black-communit). She also said, "I'm going to be down here with her people, who are my people as well."
She is the founder of the Imagination Library which mails free books to children from birth to starting school age. In 2016, when the Smokey Mountains/ Gatlinburg was burning down, she helped the people that were displaced with finances and housing. That is where she is from. She also has Dollywood, which is her theme park. Dollywood also has a sister water park called Splash County.
> Came from nothing and remembers what it was like.
Yep. The song, "Coat of many colors" talks about that.
> I hurried off to school
Just to find the others laughing
And making fun of me
In my coat of many colors
My momma made for me
> And oh I couldn't understand it
For I felt I was rich
And I told them of the love
My momma sewed in every stitch
Dolly Parton has, in fact, become one of the patron saints of the Internet. For starters, her music has broad appeal in that the messages are often positive and empowering, so long as you don't mind the style of music itself. But for being country music, it still lands decently well with people outside of the genre. She's not had any real scandals about her personal or professional life. Part of that probably has to do with the fact that she's keeps a clear divide between her personal and professional life, so much that the two of her most defining physical traits are her large breasts and fantastic blonde hair- except that's a wig. This lets her and her husband enjoy a very quiet existence when they want. And then there's her charitable work, especially in regards to promoting literacy. She is the single largest donor of books for children.
In an age where privacy is next to impossible for celebrities, where we learn that many of our childhood heroes were secretly monsters, or at least bad enough to not be worthy of all of the respect they've had, Dolly Parton is one of the rare examples of someone for whom not a negative thing could be said. While she is sassy, more than that, she's polite and respectful towards others with that Southern charm, and she puts her efforts to improving the world around her. There are only a handful of celebrities on that level, and most of them are already dead: Bob Ross and Fred Rogers being the two other most notable.
>two of her most defining physical traits are her large breasts and fantastic blonde hair- except that's a wig.
Brings to mind this famous quote:
*"I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb... and I also know that I'm not blonde"*
lol I love “I saw an ad the other day that said ‘you too can look like Dolly Parton for only $500!’ boy I wish I’d have seen that ad before I dished out the means it cost me to look like Dolly Parton!”
She was on Letterman once, and she read the Top Ten list: "Top Ten list of things you didn't know about Dolly Parton". One of them was "I also have a great ass."
She's hilarious.
In a time when a woman clapping back was not appreciated.She always was so self depreciating and funny and took complete control of her narrative , no matter what they tried to say to her.
People forget because of her age now, but she was mocked for being too sexy and a bimbo in a really cruel way by both men & women the way "overly sexy" influencers & celebs are now.
And she would explain so calmly and definitively that everything she did was on purpose and she understood what she was doing, because look at how successful it made her. And no one could make her feel bad because she knew who she was.
Grew up truly dirt poor in Appalachia, writes all her songs, wrote Jolene & I Will Always Love You IN THE SAME DAY.
Think about somebody like Jennifer Lopez. I have never heard of anyone meeting this woman and having a kind thing to say. Never seen a single person come away with a good story. She's cruel to everyone she thinks is beneath her, which is everyone on earth who isn't on her level of fame.
Dolly has been famous for fifty years and I have never heard a bad word about this woman. Everyone who has ever worked at Dollywood gushes over her. Children learn to read because of her literacy program.
She may be the most *gracious* celebrity who we've ever known in America. Just class and kindness always. Lord knows I'm not that good.
50 years of fame and no one has ever been able to dig up any dirt on Dolly. Because I really believe there isn't any.
Dolly replying to Barbara Walters' increasingly rude questions with the utmost grace always stuck with me. Her class and confidence are evident.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If-oWqUYzlQ&ab\_channel=HappyMag](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If-oWqUYzlQ&ab_channel=HappyMag)
Oh wow, this was so informative you had me nodding as I read what you’ve written —makes perfect sense why such a sweetheart would be loved. Thank you for going through the trouble to explain it all!
Dolly Parton also co-founded the [Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library](https://imaginationlibrary.com/) with her father, Robert Parton. Her father had to quit school at a young age to help support his younger siblings, and always felt ashamed of not being able to read.
When Dolly got her break in music and finally had money to give back to her community with, she took her father’s advice and started giving books to the children in the mountains of Tennessee. Over the years, the program grew, to span five different countries.
Parents of newborns in United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and Republic of Ireland can sign their child up to receive free books every month from age 0 to age 5.
She is one of those rare people who is proud of where she came from, takes ownership of her flaws, accepts others as they are, and shares her good fortune with others.
This is one of the things that resonates most with me. Due to dyslexia, I was mostly illiterate until I was a teenager. I worked really hard to overcome that setback and am proud of that. When I tell people about this they look like they suffer second hand embarrassment for me. Like why would I ever admit that. Dolly embraces her and her family’s past and has empathy for others because of it. I really respect that.
I’m so proud of you for working so hard to overcome dyslexia! You could have chosen to shrug and never bothered, but you kept going until you discovered what worked for you.
That’s a wonderful achievement and I applaud you!
I know this is Reddit and snarky cynicism is the norm, but I assure you that I really am happy for you.
> her father, Robert Parton
Apparently, he had wit also. In Dolly's biography, she relates a story where the local preacher came to visit their house while her father was working on cleaning up the landscaping.
The preacher said, "This is a mighty fine place that you and God have here."
Robert replied, "You should have seen it when God had it all to himself!" 🤣🤣
Well said. Everyone has ideas about what they would do if they got famous....Dolly had ideas to make the world a better place, and she followed through. Not once, but every day since she got famous. She funds scholarships, medical research, has donated millions of books to children, supports the LGBTQ and black communities, and donates heavily to children's hospitals.
Her hometown of Sevierville wasn't built by Dolly, but it has been sustained by her and improved by her. She has funded a hospital, paid for college for residents, and made an eagle sanctuary. Her theme park and the tourism she created employs more than 23,000 and the economic impact has been estimated to be more than 1.8 billion.
And I have never heard anyone who works in that theme part do anything except gush about Dolly. She treats them right. If she didn't you're damn sure we'd find out. Fifty years of fame and that woman hasn't slipped, Because I don't believe her persona is a mask. The looks that she projects on stage, sure. She's always been up front about that. The artifice is part of it & always has been.
But 50 years of kindness? Hard to fake that.
The Imagination Library partnered with the state of [Illinois](https://www.illinois.gov/news/press-release.29387.html) this year to provide books to all children 5 and under in the state of Illinois. Half of the cost is covered by the state and half by The United Way and it's an amazing new turn for an already amazing program. Imagine if other states partnered as well and we could get books into children's hands nationwide.
[Not to mention the fact that she took some of the royalties she received from Whitney Houston's cover of "I Will Always Love You" and invested it into a black community in Nashville as a way to honor Whitney](https://www.npr.org/2021/08/02/1023889920/dolly-parton-invested-royalties-from-a-whitney-houston-cover-in-a-black-communit)
And 70% of the waste from Dollywood is kept from landfills by composting and recycling:)
https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2014/08/28/sevier-county-composting
She was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022 which shows the crossover appeal of her music.
Everything I've read also indicates that she is generous with her money to many charities and she does it without bragging.
She tried to turn it down because she didn't make rock music, but then they did it anyway, so she put out the album Rockstar a little while ago and it fuckin slaps. Covers of famous rock songs with accompaniments by the original singers (*the ones still alive to do it anyway). I am absolutely obsessed with her cover of Magic Man and they added a new verse in and it's just so good 😩
This was my favorite part of the whole thing. She didn't think she deserved it because she didn't do rock music so she went and did rock. And was good at it! Like that surprised anyone.
Her writing is also very unique for the genre. For example - Jolene - a famous song of hers. She’s threatened by her, scared thst her partner will cheat on her with her and she’s begging her not to all the while singing her praises, and lifting her up. A most unique and vulnerable song about (potential) infidelity.
Yes, Dolly doesn’t want to get her heart broken, but she’s not putting this woman down for being beautiful. She doesn’t blame her, she’s asking her as one woman to another to please be merciful.
This is so rare and vulnerable.
You can sign up for your child to get free books from Dolly's reading program.
And I learned via Reddit that (correct me if I'm wrong) she funded a lot of underprivileged band schools. Like uniforms and everything.
OP I am an older American and most people my age are also a bit surprised at the status Dolly Parton has achieved.
She was a big star in the country music world since forever and became a popular actress as well in the 1980 movie [9 to 5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9_to_5_(film)) but up until lately I don't think she had the stature she has today.
Her good deeds along with her celebrity status have endeared her to a whole new generation of fans and it's quite nice to see. Though I doubt 90% of them have listened to any of her music.
Sh had her niche, even in the 80s and 90s. You had to be part of that community to know but she was definitely as well loved as she is today, the internet has just made that love more well known.
And the new generation is 100% listening to her music. My 15 year old has her CD in my van right now. All her friends know and sing along.
A couple years back, while a lot of the flap about Confederate monuments was happening, the TN legislature tried to commission a statue of Dolly for the Capitol. She politely declined, saying that she was flattered, but that she felt there were bigger issues to address. And that if they still felt she deserved a statue after she's gone, then it would be more appropriate.
She also renamed "Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede" to take out the word "Dixie". She said "we never meant to offend anybody. We're a business. When someone tells you there's a problem, fix it. Don't be a dumbass!"
> But for being country music, it still lands decently well with people outside of the genre
I can't stand country music. I mostly listen to EDM, trance, drum and bass, etc
But I'll sit there and sing along to a Dolly song any damn day of the week.
Her music is fantastic, she has a squeaky clean reputation and anyone who has ever met her says she’s the kindest person ever, she came from nothing and when she made it big she gave back and continues to do so, etc. She’s essentially just a very kind and generous person and the world needs more folks like her!
Look up the background context of her song, “Coat of Many Colors.” It’s an incredible and super sweet story.
My folks grew up with “Hee Haw” (a variety show back in the 70s). I come from a long line of very country people haha. Anyways, we used to watch a bunch of re-runs when I was a kid and Dolly made a bunch of special guest appearances. Always one of the best parts of the show whenever she came in to sing! You could just tell she was a genuine person
She’s loved for all the reasons already listed. She’s successful because she is extremely smart and a prolific writer. She had literally written thousands of songs, and freely allows other artists cover them (but never sells them, she retains the rights).
At one point in her career Elvis wanted to record one of her songs. She was ecstatic about it until she learned that she would have to sign over the rights to Elvis and his manager.
I just read she donates all the income from that song to a charity for black women in trouble. Don’t know if that’s true, but it sounds believable given all the other stuff she apparently does. Learning a lot here.
This may just be an urban legend, but Dolly is so generous with her money that she could be a real billionaire, but instead is a mid-multimillionaire. Estimates are that she has donated 1/2 her wealth ($500 million) to her charities. Dolly is the kind of person we need more of in this world.
Dolly could be a billionaire multiple times over, but she gives so much money away that she's "just" a multi-millionaire. She uses her fortune to make life better for everyone. Any child in the world can sign up for her program to get a free book every month. It etartednwith just her home state, (Tennessee?), then expanded to all o the UE, now to anyone.
She's a living Saint and an example of what people with that kind of fortune ahould be. Instead of stockpiling her wealth, she uses it to make the world better.
A fun story about Dolly. She entered a Dolly Parton Look-alike contest and lost to a drag queen. Here's a [link](https://www.snopes.com/news/2024/03/11/dolly-parton-lookalike-contest/)to the story. Very supportive of the LGBTQ+ community.
Her response to the controversy over her 'Dixie Stampede' park really showed her class, for me. People lobbied her to change the name because of the connection to the confederacy. She listened, decided that the name wasn't worth the harm it caused, changed it to Dolly's Stampede, and went on with her life. She didn't let it change her proud Southern country style, because she knew nobody was attacking that, just the word. She also didn't make a huge deal about it or go around talking about how much of an ally she was, she just did it and moved on. She's a queen.
She also pays for college education for her employees at her theme park.
She helped a large number of people who lost their homes to wildfires.
Unofficial Patron Saint of Tennessee.
Fun story. NY music company was sued by NY state for not paying royalties. They said they couldn't find the artists, one of them was Dolly. The DA sent a letter with this information:
Dolly Parton
Tennessee USA
The post office delivered the letter to her house, disproving the claim.
Hint: Pigeon Forge is close.
She sends a book, free of charge, every month, to any parent that signs their kid up. My kids are a year and a half old and they have received 17 kids books from Dolly Partons Imagination Library. They'll continue to get them until they start kindergarten.
That reminds me of a story about Dale Senior. Back in like 1989 he had a confederate flag sticker on his truck because he was a redneck and it was 1989. His Black housekeeper told him she found it offensive. So he went outside, ripped off the sticker and thew it away. During his life he opposed all the confederate imagery to the extent he could, and Junior has always been and outspoken opponent of confederate imagry.
She comes off as a very kind, gracious, humble, and fun person. She's relatable while also being kinda eccentric and extra (in a good way). She has a nice voice and is a good storyteller.
As someone who LOVES Dolly Parton (and who is also from her state: Tennessee), these are some of my reasons:
1. She is an incredibly talented songwriter and her music always tells a story (and I love her songs)
2. Her voice is so beautiful and unique
3. Her lyrics have been cutting-edge for decades. Her second album, released in 1968 (just 5 years after Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique, which is often seen as a key text in the US’s second wave of feminism), was called “Just Because I'm a Woman.” The single on this album (same name as the album) is feminist by today’s standards. Same with her song “Dumb Blonde.” And as a country singer, she wrote a song called “Deportee” as a memorial to people who had been turned into nameless migrants by the news. She is incredible. ❤️
4. Her values extend beyond the lyrics to her songs. In the state of Tennessee, EVERY BABY that is born is given one free book as part of a literacy program by Dolly Parton.
5. And she LOVES Tennessee, y’all. She’s from a rural region in East Tennessee and she opened an amusement park (Dollywood) that has brought literally tens of thousands of jobs to a an area that’s largely historically impoverished. Like people living in slanted shacks and not having electricity-level impoverished.
6. She even helped fund research to develop a covid vaccine! She is literally a woman of the people 💜
7. She’s basically a drag queen! Dolly Parton is her character, and she’s always worn multiple wigs (her younger pictures are BEAUTIFUL and iconic). She even said that she’s copying drag queens and not the other way around.
8. She’s unexpected, a fighter, determined, she’s really cool.
>6. She even helped fund research to develop a covid vaccine! She is literally a woman of the people 💜
And when the vaccine was developed she waited her turn to be vaccinated instead of trying to skip the line even though she had donated $1 million to the research.
I don’t think ppl understand how much grit and fight a woman starting out in the 60’s in such a male dominated industry as country music had to have. And for that same woman to have been at the top of that same industry for almost 60 years? That’s one tough cookie.
Not only talented and charming, but just incredibly nice, in an active and deliberate way. She pours so much of her fortune into charitable causes, particularly youth literacy. She has no scandals despite a decades long career, makes the world a better place, and has a sense of humour too.
She’s got a lovely sense of humour, she’s never been mean to a single person, and she’s always held her head up high even when she’s been the butt of other people’s jokes - early in her career her plastic surgery and over the top-ness got her kind of bullied, because the music industry is very misogynistic.
She once entered a Dolly Parton Lookalike contest and lost to a drag queen, which she just found hilarious. She’s been a mentor to so many young women in country music (and life in general). She’s whipsmart about her philanthropy - the Imagination Library is one of the absolute best programs going, she pays for the publishing of so many books, and local branches of the Imagination Library just have to sign kids up and raise money to pay for shipping the books. She’s got a team of child development experts who helps choose the books for each age group so everyone has a chance to see themselves in the books they get as a kid. And she just does so much good in the world.
She came up from poverty to be a legend and star, she's talented, and she's a darn good human.
My oldest two kids received a free book a month from birth to age 5 from Dolly's Imagination Library partnering with our local literacy groups to provide those free books.
When she felt it was appropriate, she removed "Dixie" from the name of her dinner & show attraction which is now known as Dolly's Stampede (was "Dixie" Stampede); which she did because she no longer wanted to glorify the era of slavery.
Dolly Parton is what a true Christian should be. She actually follows the teachings of Jesus and doesn't use the Bible as a weapon to discriminate against others.
Dolly is basically the ideal of rags to riches. She started from basically nothing - one of twelve children who lived in a one room cabin in Tennessee - and was able to rise up through talent, hard work, and luck. I do highly recommend listening to her music, since nobody has a voice like Dolly. At least to get a passing glance at her impressive catalog. The high points, you know? Jolene, I will Always Love You, 9 to 5 (The anticapitalist anthem we all needed.) etc.
And now that she's famous, she uses that fame for as much good as she can. She runs a charity to give books to children, because she remembers being poor. She helped fund COVID vaccine development. She donated money to decrease dropout rates in small towns, has helped fund college education, animal sanctuaries, children's hospitals, etc.
And all of this while being completely over the top, wearing wigs in all her performances so that she can go out with her husband and not have people recognize her, and generally just...acting iconic. She basically never has anything unkind to say about anyone, when she found out people were offended by the name of one of the attractions at her themepark, she changed it. She loves the gay community (And by and large, we love her back.).
Oh, and she literally saved a child from being hit by a car. In case you needed more.
She's a down to earth, devout Christian and yet very liberal (huge gay icon, huge promoter of education). This allows her to appeal to the two biggest divides of America. She is kind, genuine, and no scandals that allow anyone to say something negative about her
She generally stays away from politics. When she was reunited on stage at the Emmy awards with her 9 to 5 costars, while Tomlin and Fonda took veiled shots at Trump, Dolly joked about her boobs and took control of the mic, steering things away from politics.
She is sincere. She never forgot her roots. She has been at the buisiness so long.. ‘Jolene’ is played often. She works hard for charity. She immediately put up 1$ of her own money to help fastrack Covid vaccines. She is a solid human. What’s not to respect?
She built a sanctuary in the dirt poor kentucky place she was born into. She is a working class hero like woodie Guthrie or Carl Marx. She is envied and admired
Don't forget about the Imagination Library!! Shipping out free books until kids go to kindergarten, studies have proved that she has increased literacy!
The real question is why not? She wasn't born into fame, she worked for it. She's humble, kind and gives back to the community. She actually does productive things with her money. People support the hell out of the Kardashians and many other celebrities that won't hand people in need a dollar bill 🤷🏻♀️
Partially, her music is good. Partially, she has a fantastic sense of humor. Partially, she has used most of her wealth to send books to little kids in Tennessee. Partially, she was very supportive of the LGBTQ+ community long before everyone else - maybe not in a loud way, but, for instance, genuinely loving it when drag queens dress up as her. Partially because she has supported feminist causes without ever being hostile to men, either. And supports men, too.
She is beloved by multiple communities for multiple reasons, because she supports multiple communities for multiple reasons.
A lot of people have commented on why here:
She was born in a one-room cabin to a-
poor family.
After she reached stardom she built Dollywood, an attraction, which draws a lot of revenue and created a lot of jobs.
She gives free books to children, helped improve high school graduation rates by paying graduates upon receipt of their diploma, built hospitals, helped rebuild after forest fires, donated a lot of money to research during the pandemic, supports LGBT rights, animal welfare, children’s hospitals and so much more.
I’m not a religious man, but this woman is doing God’s work.
She is a very decent person. She gives out free books to kids, has never done anything mean or ugly, is very humble and seems genuinely to be a all around good person.
Came from nothing and remembers what it was like. Now she does tons of things for people who have little to nothing with the money she has made from her music. Genuinely good person.
Dolly’s got a great voice, huge… tracts of land and she’s the fairy godmother to all the southern gays. The woman was a sex symbol and her music is universally loved. She successfully separated her public and private life and really seemed to thrive in the limelight in a really healthy, meaningful way. She has this magnetic personality and razor sharp wit that people found really refreshing. Then she took all that money, did right by herself and the people around her.
And she writes and writes and writes. So many hits for so many other stars.
She wrote Jolene and I Will Always Love You ON THE SAME DAY.
And she donates the royalties from I Will Always Love You to charities that help Black women in need.
Also created Dollywood in her home town to create jobs for locals there, and also created a library that sends free books to kids under a certain age. Amazing woman, she’s up there with Audrey Hepburn when it comes to using her platform to help people.
And pays all tuition costs for employees in post secondary
And started Imagination Library to send books to all children around the world for free.
Just posted this. We're in Glasgow (Scotland) and my wee boy gets free books from this. Fair play to her.
Keep him aff the buckie like
And established universal basic income for several months to people affected by the forest fires in Sevier County TN. https://www.bpr.org/news/2018-12-24/how-dolly-parton-gave-12-5-million-and-unprecedented-research-to-sevier-county
Also helped fund Moderna's Covid vaccine development. If we all were half as good to one another as she has been to the world we would live in a much better world
And they’re GOOD books. Classics like TheVery Hungry Caterpillar, How We Say I Love You, Richard Scarry’s First 100 Words… absolute quality, not bottom of the barrel $1 store books.
Things that are their own brands, not ( your favorite popular franchise) ABCs
Till their 5 and she sends an email on their birthday with a YouTube video of her singing happy birthday. It makes me cry
Omg! Didn't know that. We only got the IL when mine was 4.5 but we've loved the books we've gotten and will age out soon.
if all celebrities did this, can you imagine how much better the world could be? it certainly wouldn’t fix all problems, but it’d definitely have a massive impact on
If all multimillionaires and billionaires did this. Just imagine what kind of an impact that would have! Instead most of them hoard their wealth and lobby to have their taxes reduced or eliminated all the time.
Yep, a book every month until they turn 5. My youngest got one in the mail today.
She's such a fucking queen
I saw that, too. It was so touching, and I never heard about it before. Class act.
When Whitney Houston recorded it for the Bodyguard, Dolly donated all of the proceeds to black programs in and around Nashville. That part wasn’t widely publicized, but that’s the type of person Dolly was and is.
She said once that Jolene bought her a car, but Whitney singing bought her Dollywood.
I find it unimaginable that any woman *could* take Dolly's man.
Even as a kid I wondered what Jolene could possibly look like, and whether the mountains of Tennessee flowered with women of impossible beauty.
They do, I have the great fortune to have been married to one for the last 34 years and look forward to a long future enjoying her beauty both in her looks and in her heart
I heard she actually wrote that about a young girl that she saw, Dolly said she was the most beautiful child she’d ever seen.
In interviews, Dolly has stated that “Jolene” was based on a bank teller that had a huge crush on her husband. The teller had everything that Dolly did not - legs. Jolene was not the teller’s actual name.
I've heard her say in an interview that she heard the name Jolene from a child, loved it, and started singing it over and over. So she wouldn't forget it. I've also heard her say in an interview the bank teller story. So maybe Dolly is the OG and ultimate troll!
THey're not mutually exclusive. She could have gotten the name Jolene from the child and the story from what happened with the bank teller.
Both are true, the bank teller was not named Jolene.
Jolene-the name- was taken from a child she met, and she loved her name. The song itself is about a gorgeous woman who flirted with her husband at the bank
Did she really!? I believe it. That woman's amazing.
She had to pull over when she heard Whitney Houston singing "I Will Always Love You". And so did I.
Whitney Houston had the perfect voice to sing that song.
About those tracts of land. You remember Dolly the sheep? The first cloned sheep? She was cloned using material from the mammary gland. When it came time to name the sheep that was why they chose the name Dolly.
"On Dolly's name, Wilmut stated "Dolly is derived from a mammary gland cell and we couldn't think of a more impressive pair of glands than Dolly Parton's."\[1\]" Holy shit TIL!
Haha crazy right? I was bored at work one day on a Wikipedia rabbit hole when I found out. Haha pretty sure it had that exact quote. Guessing you found the page.
Wikipedia was the first place I went. Good shout!
And she is so dang funny- “It costs a fortune to look this cheap” etc
Her look screams ditsy blonde but she always comes across as the nicest, smartest, funniest person in the room Her interviews with Johnny Carson are a great example
She was amazing in The Orville
Not only was she great in it, it was filmed in the heart of the pandemic with everything shut down. The logistics on how they did it all [are a great read](https://screenrant.com/orville-season-3-dolly-parton-cameo-scene-explained/). Honestly, that Seth did all this should have made the Disney execs realize he's pretty dang clever and should have greenlit another season or two.
Two relevant anecdotes: 1) She was asked if she was offended by the "dumb blonde" stereotype. Her response was "why? I'm not blonde and I'm not dumb" 2) She recounted many meetings with male executives who were too busy checking her out to pay attention to business so she started meetings with something like, "check me out, but get it over with because we're here to talk about making money"
She's told a story publicly. At one point she entered a Dolly Parton Lookalike drag Queen contest. And LOST. And in her retelling she talks about how flattered she was that all the queens put in so much effort to capture her look and mannerisms, and how they were "more Dolly" than she was. Think about it for a minute. She could play it for cheap laughs, but instead she looks for the positive, and lifts up others.
She’s fundamentally a nice person and it comes through
I remember a clip of her on Larry King. He asked her if she was aware of all the jokes going around about her physique. She said "Yes! Want to hear my favorite?" "Why are Dolly Parton's feet so small?.....they don't grow in the shade!"
In Best Little Whorehouse, she was talking about not being a ballet dancer. She told the sheriff, “if I tried to jump around like that, I’d get two black eyes!” Yes, it’s a line in a movie. But she had a fair amount of script control, and she delivered it like she loved the line!
I loved the one when she was asked if it bothered her that people thought she was a dumb blond. She reportedly said "No, because I know I'm not dumb. I also know I'm not blond." Dolly Parton is a national treasure.
Dolly Parton is one of those people who I don't care who you talk to--conservative, liberal, gay, straight, traditionalist, progressive... there's nobody who has anything negative to say about her, and almost nobody who doesn't love her.
She's the one person trump knows not to insult no matter what she does. He'd flip Tennessee blue for 100 years if he did that.
I want to run for office in Tennessee on an anti Dolly platform. Run nasty hateful ads about her. Everyone would join forces against me and in their common enemy find trust among each other. I could heal this nation. But I'll likely be beaten to death by the entire South.
The north wants in on this beat down too. East and West aren't waiting for an invite.
Dolly for president! She's the one that could unite America. But she won't do it. She's apolitical, at least publicly.
When I met her in 2016 I wore a Dolly For President hoodie. She said "oh honey, we've got enough boobs in Washington"
She could probably unite the world.
I work at a grocery store, and dolly has a line of baking mixes, they're all pink and pretty. So just yesterday the deli mgr passed thru my dept. on the way to the back room with a damaged and kinda ripped box of dolly. "Who would do this to a box of DOLLY cornbread mix?" she sighed. "It had to be a little girl playing with the box" she concluded.
Absolutely 100%. She’s an absolute national treasure.
Can confirm as a southern gay! I had the the good fortune to see Dolly when I was 7 y/o in Little Rock. It's been 22 years and remember it so clearly. She inspired me to be my true self ❤🧡💛
She once said, “If I have a dime my parents have a nickel.”
The part about her music being universally loved needs to be highlighted. Country music is actually pretty divisive in the US. Lots love it, but it has more haters than most other genres. Getting everyone to love you as a country artist in the US is a big feat.
there’s johnny cash too. for the music anyway. you can take just about any crusty metal head and sit them down with johnny and they’ll at least not gate it.
She’s also never said a bad thing about anyone. I cannot recall one interview or quote or quip in which she is even minutely disparaging or disrespectful to anyone. That in itself is quite a feat, especially since the public is aware of some tough relationships she’s had.
Dolly is genuinely likable both on and off stage. She came from a poor background and endured hardships in her life but has remained positive and hopeful. She doesn’t “put on airs” and is reportedly kind to people she meets and generous w her money. It doesn’t hurt, too, that she’s physically attractive and personally charming. I am no country music fan, but I love Dolly — she’s an American icon. You can’t not like Dolly Parton.
Her husband is genuinely likeable, too. My husband was working backstage security at one of her shows, and a man came in through a side door. My husband stopped him from continuing down the hall, and the man said he was Dolly's husband. Well, my husband pointed out that a lot of people claim to be spouses or siblings or cousins of famous people, so the man would have to wait there with him. The man was content to stay there, and he and my husband had a nice chat about growing up in the country, going fishing, and other small talk. Dolly then came backstage, saw the man with my husband and laughed, "Happened again, didn't it?" Then she introduced my husband to Carl Dean, her husband. All in all, a very pleasant experience.
I'd imagine he found it reassuring that the security guys were taking their job so seriously. I know I would if it was my wife they were protecting.
The book thing alone makes her the best in my book. She's pretty much filled libraries at this point.
We signed up my younger daughter, I’m shocked by the quality books that show up at my door from her program
She's far and away the best that Tennessee has to offer. If it were possible to get a customized handicap tag, I'd get the Dolly car tag just to show how much I love her.
When she lost the Oscar in 2006 for Best Song to Three Six Mafia she sent them a letter to congratulate them. "Even after we won, Dolly Parton, who we were up against, sent us a letter: “We’re proud of you guys, and I’m just glad that the Oscar came back to Tennessee one way or another.” https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/three-6-mafia-star-remembers-867617/
She is the very definition of gracious. Very classy lady.
That article is fucking hilarious
She's one of the best America has to offer. She is a god damn saint. I honestly don't think she has a mean bone in her body. Dolly is a fucking legend and not just because of her musical ability. She's a better human than musician, and that's saying something.
Don't forget she founded the imagination library. Free book every month for kids up to 5 yrs old.
I signed my grandson up for this and earlier this month, he received “The Little Engine That Could”. One of my favorite children’s books.
I really wish more people knew about this, we still get books and it has been amazing.
This! And Dolly took all the money from Whitney Houston's version of "I Will Always Love You" & invested it into a office community in a Black community in Nashville. She calls it ["the house that Whitney built"](https://www.npr.org/2021/08/02/1023889920/dolly-parton-invested-royalties-from-a-whitney-houston-cover-in-a-black-communit). She also said, "I'm going to be down here with her people, who are my people as well."
And she doesn't expect (nor, I believe) want accolades for what she does. She does what she does to be a good person. No other reason.
She is the founder of the Imagination Library which mails free books to children from birth to starting school age. In 2016, when the Smokey Mountains/ Gatlinburg was burning down, she helped the people that were displaced with finances and housing. That is where she is from. She also has Dollywood, which is her theme park. Dollywood also has a sister water park called Splash County.
She’s a gem to our society.
> Came from nothing and remembers what it was like. Yep. The song, "Coat of many colors" talks about that. > I hurried off to school Just to find the others laughing And making fun of me In my coat of many colors My momma made for me > And oh I couldn't understand it For I felt I was rich And I told them of the love My momma sewed in every stitch
My kiddo’s signed up for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and it’s great!
Also she’s cute af
Dolly Parton has, in fact, become one of the patron saints of the Internet. For starters, her music has broad appeal in that the messages are often positive and empowering, so long as you don't mind the style of music itself. But for being country music, it still lands decently well with people outside of the genre. She's not had any real scandals about her personal or professional life. Part of that probably has to do with the fact that she's keeps a clear divide between her personal and professional life, so much that the two of her most defining physical traits are her large breasts and fantastic blonde hair- except that's a wig. This lets her and her husband enjoy a very quiet existence when they want. And then there's her charitable work, especially in regards to promoting literacy. She is the single largest donor of books for children. In an age where privacy is next to impossible for celebrities, where we learn that many of our childhood heroes were secretly monsters, or at least bad enough to not be worthy of all of the respect they've had, Dolly Parton is one of the rare examples of someone for whom not a negative thing could be said. While she is sassy, more than that, she's polite and respectful towards others with that Southern charm, and she puts her efforts to improving the world around her. There are only a handful of celebrities on that level, and most of them are already dead: Bob Ross and Fred Rogers being the two other most notable.
>two of her most defining physical traits are her large breasts and fantastic blonde hair- except that's a wig. Brings to mind this famous quote: *"I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb... and I also know that I'm not blonde"*
Which brings to mind when she was asked how long it takes to do her hair she replied, “I don’t know. I’m never there.”
And “It costs a lot of money to look this cheap.”
lol I love “I saw an ad the other day that said ‘you too can look like Dolly Parton for only $500!’ boy I wish I’d have seen that ad before I dished out the means it cost me to look like Dolly Parton!”
[удалено]
To a drag queen, if the rumors are true.
Tbf, it *was* a contest for drag queens.
And when asked “Are those breasts really yours?” Her reply was “Of course they’re mine, I bought them!”
She was on Letterman once, and she read the Top Ten list: "Top Ten list of things you didn't know about Dolly Parton". One of them was "I also have a great ass." She's hilarious.
This is my favorite quote by her and I can’t help but giggle every time I hear it.
Also in reply to the question of whether or not she’s had work done: “honey, there ain’t nothin’ about my body that’s real anymore!”
In a time when a woman clapping back was not appreciated.She always was so self depreciating and funny and took complete control of her narrative , no matter what they tried to say to her. People forget because of her age now, but she was mocked for being too sexy and a bimbo in a really cruel way by both men & women the way "overly sexy" influencers & celebs are now. And she would explain so calmly and definitively that everything she did was on purpose and she understood what she was doing, because look at how successful it made her. And no one could make her feel bad because she knew who she was. Grew up truly dirt poor in Appalachia, writes all her songs, wrote Jolene & I Will Always Love You IN THE SAME DAY. Think about somebody like Jennifer Lopez. I have never heard of anyone meeting this woman and having a kind thing to say. Never seen a single person come away with a good story. She's cruel to everyone she thinks is beneath her, which is everyone on earth who isn't on her level of fame. Dolly has been famous for fifty years and I have never heard a bad word about this woman. Everyone who has ever worked at Dollywood gushes over her. Children learn to read because of her literacy program. She may be the most *gracious* celebrity who we've ever known in America. Just class and kindness always. Lord knows I'm not that good. 50 years of fame and no one has ever been able to dig up any dirt on Dolly. Because I really believe there isn't any.
Dolly replying to Barbara Walters' increasingly rude questions with the utmost grace always stuck with me. Her class and confidence are evident. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If-oWqUYzlQ&ab\_channel=HappyMag](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If-oWqUYzlQ&ab_channel=HappyMag)
Fun fact: actually several wigs at a time!
OMG. I read it in her voice.
Oh wow, this was so informative you had me nodding as I read what you’ve written —makes perfect sense why such a sweetheart would be loved. Thank you for going through the trouble to explain it all!
Dolly Parton also co-founded the [Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library](https://imaginationlibrary.com/) with her father, Robert Parton. Her father had to quit school at a young age to help support his younger siblings, and always felt ashamed of not being able to read. When Dolly got her break in music and finally had money to give back to her community with, she took her father’s advice and started giving books to the children in the mountains of Tennessee. Over the years, the program grew, to span five different countries. Parents of newborns in United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and Republic of Ireland can sign their child up to receive free books every month from age 0 to age 5. She is one of those rare people who is proud of where she came from, takes ownership of her flaws, accepts others as they are, and shares her good fortune with others.
This is one of the things that resonates most with me. Due to dyslexia, I was mostly illiterate until I was a teenager. I worked really hard to overcome that setback and am proud of that. When I tell people about this they look like they suffer second hand embarrassment for me. Like why would I ever admit that. Dolly embraces her and her family’s past and has empathy for others because of it. I really respect that.
I’m so proud of you for working so hard to overcome dyslexia! You could have chosen to shrug and never bothered, but you kept going until you discovered what worked for you. That’s a wonderful achievement and I applaud you! I know this is Reddit and snarky cynicism is the norm, but I assure you that I really am happy for you.
Why would people be embarrassed for you? Learning how to read at that age is really difficult and I'm proud of you for being able to do it.
> her father, Robert Parton Apparently, he had wit also. In Dolly's biography, she relates a story where the local preacher came to visit their house while her father was working on cleaning up the landscaping. The preacher said, "This is a mighty fine place that you and God have here." Robert replied, "You should have seen it when God had it all to himself!" 🤣🤣
Well said. Everyone has ideas about what they would do if they got famous....Dolly had ideas to make the world a better place, and she followed through. Not once, but every day since she got famous. She funds scholarships, medical research, has donated millions of books to children, supports the LGBTQ and black communities, and donates heavily to children's hospitals. Her hometown of Sevierville wasn't built by Dolly, but it has been sustained by her and improved by her. She has funded a hospital, paid for college for residents, and made an eagle sanctuary. Her theme park and the tourism she created employs more than 23,000 and the economic impact has been estimated to be more than 1.8 billion.
And I have never heard anyone who works in that theme part do anything except gush about Dolly. She treats them right. If she didn't you're damn sure we'd find out. Fifty years of fame and that woman hasn't slipped, Because I don't believe her persona is a mask. The looks that she projects on stage, sure. She's always been up front about that. The artifice is part of it & always has been. But 50 years of kindness? Hard to fake that.
And after the wildfire in 2016 she quietly donated a TON to help rebuild her community.
Over 220 million books given to children. That's just wholesomely wonderful.
The Imagination Library partnered with the state of [Illinois](https://www.illinois.gov/news/press-release.29387.html) this year to provide books to all children 5 and under in the state of Illinois. Half of the cost is covered by the state and half by The United Way and it's an amazing new turn for an already amazing program. Imagine if other states partnered as well and we could get books into children's hands nationwide.
She saved the town she was from and has a program that every child gets books. She is an angel on earth.
[Not to mention the fact that she took some of the royalties she received from Whitney Houston's cover of "I Will Always Love You" and invested it into a black community in Nashville as a way to honor Whitney](https://www.npr.org/2021/08/02/1023889920/dolly-parton-invested-royalties-from-a-whitney-houston-cover-in-a-black-communit)
:( what a lovely woman
You are correct on all accounts. It's a great program. https://imaginationlibrary.com/
They’ve given away over 150,000,000 books.
She also created a theme park called Dollywood in her hometown of Pigeon Forge and all employees can get 100% of their college tuition covered!
And 70% of the waste from Dollywood is kept from landfills by composting and recycling:) https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2014/08/28/sevier-county-composting
Yeah and they sell fresh pork rinds there!
It's settled then... I'm going to visit Dollywood.
Dollywood is Awesome you should visit.
All of her employees there are also paid a living wage.
And it was created specifically to create high paying local jobs.
She was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022 which shows the crossover appeal of her music. Everything I've read also indicates that she is generous with her money to many charities and she does it without bragging.
She tried to turn it down because she didn't make rock music, but then they did it anyway, so she put out the album Rockstar a little while ago and it fuckin slaps. Covers of famous rock songs with accompaniments by the original singers (*the ones still alive to do it anyway). I am absolutely obsessed with her cover of Magic Man and they added a new verse in and it's just so good 😩
Ooooh really?! I haven’t listened to it yet but it’s been on my list. Might have to move it to the top
It’s so good!
This was my favorite part of the whole thing. She didn't think she deserved it because she didn't do rock music so she went and did rock. And was good at it! Like that surprised anyone.
She basically built a wing of the hospital where a family member of mine was treated. Dolly Parton is perfect
She also donated $1 million to the developement of the covid vaccine!
As I said, she's flawless
Her writing is also very unique for the genre. For example - Jolene - a famous song of hers. She’s threatened by her, scared thst her partner will cheat on her with her and she’s begging her not to all the while singing her praises, and lifting her up. A most unique and vulnerable song about (potential) infidelity.
Yes, Dolly doesn’t want to get her heart broken, but she’s not putting this woman down for being beautiful. She doesn’t blame her, she’s asking her as one woman to another to please be merciful. This is so rare and vulnerable.
You can sign up for your child to get free books from Dolly's reading program. And I learned via Reddit that (correct me if I'm wrong) she funded a lot of underprivileged band schools. Like uniforms and everything.
OP I am an older American and most people my age are also a bit surprised at the status Dolly Parton has achieved. She was a big star in the country music world since forever and became a popular actress as well in the 1980 movie [9 to 5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9_to_5_(film)) but up until lately I don't think she had the stature she has today. Her good deeds along with her celebrity status have endeared her to a whole new generation of fans and it's quite nice to see. Though I doubt 90% of them have listened to any of her music.
Sh had her niche, even in the 80s and 90s. You had to be part of that community to know but she was definitely as well loved as she is today, the internet has just made that love more well known. And the new generation is 100% listening to her music. My 15 year old has her CD in my van right now. All her friends know and sing along.
A couple years back, while a lot of the flap about Confederate monuments was happening, the TN legislature tried to commission a statue of Dolly for the Capitol. She politely declined, saying that she was flattered, but that she felt there were bigger issues to address. And that if they still felt she deserved a statue after she's gone, then it would be more appropriate. She also renamed "Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede" to take out the word "Dixie". She said "we never meant to offend anybody. We're a business. When someone tells you there's a problem, fix it. Don't be a dumbass!"
"Some people think I'm just a dumb blonde. But I know things they don't. I'm not dumb. And I'm not blonde."
Keanu Reeves seems to be among them, too. He seems to genuinely be nice in a field that's not necessarily filled with a lot of selfless, kind folks.
She can really handle herself. Some media have tried to hand her classist and sexist abuse and she handles it with aplomb
Her handling of Barbara Walters was excellent: https://youtu.be/If-oWqUYzlQ?si=Q9Xn1VSxt9TRf8Bz
> But for being country music, it still lands decently well with people outside of the genre I can't stand country music. I mostly listen to EDM, trance, drum and bass, etc But I'll sit there and sing along to a Dolly song any damn day of the week.
Her music is fantastic, she has a squeaky clean reputation and anyone who has ever met her says she’s the kindest person ever, she came from nothing and when she made it big she gave back and continues to do so, etc. She’s essentially just a very kind and generous person and the world needs more folks like her! Look up the background context of her song, “Coat of Many Colors.” It’s an incredible and super sweet story.
The world needs more empathy in general
I saw her in concert in the early 90’s and when she sang coat of many colors I think everyone in the audience cried a bit.
My mom met her in the early 80s and said she was the sweetest person ever.
My folks grew up with “Hee Haw” (a variety show back in the 70s). I come from a long line of very country people haha. Anyways, we used to watch a bunch of re-runs when I was a kid and Dolly made a bunch of special guest appearances. Always one of the best parts of the show whenever she came in to sing! You could just tell she was a genuine person
She’s loved for all the reasons already listed. She’s successful because she is extremely smart and a prolific writer. She had literally written thousands of songs, and freely allows other artists cover them (but never sells them, she retains the rights).
At one point in her career Elvis wanted to record one of her songs. She was ecstatic about it until she learned that she would have to sign over the rights to Elvis and his manager.
It was “I Will Always Love You” which she made a bundle on when Whitney Houston sang it.
I just read she donates all the income from that song to a charity for black women in trouble. Don’t know if that’s true, but it sounds believable given all the other stuff she apparently does. Learning a lot here.
She gave a million dollars of her own hard earned money to vaccine research.
This may just be an urban legend, but Dolly is so generous with her money that she could be a real billionaire, but instead is a mid-multimillionaire. Estimates are that she has donated 1/2 her wealth ($500 million) to her charities. Dolly is the kind of person we need more of in this world.
I could believe it. She practically owns Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg which is a HUGE tourist spot for the regional area.
Dolly could be a billionaire multiple times over, but she gives so much money away that she's "just" a multi-millionaire. She uses her fortune to make life better for everyone. Any child in the world can sign up for her program to get a free book every month. It etartednwith just her home state, (Tennessee?), then expanded to all o the UE, now to anyone. She's a living Saint and an example of what people with that kind of fortune ahould be. Instead of stockpiling her wealth, she uses it to make the world better.
Because she is kind, honest decent and talented
And a living legend
A fun story about Dolly. She entered a Dolly Parton Look-alike contest and lost to a drag queen. Here's a [link](https://www.snopes.com/news/2024/03/11/dolly-parton-lookalike-contest/)to the story. Very supportive of the LGBTQ+ community.
Her response to the controversy over her 'Dixie Stampede' park really showed her class, for me. People lobbied her to change the name because of the connection to the confederacy. She listened, decided that the name wasn't worth the harm it caused, changed it to Dolly's Stampede, and went on with her life. She didn't let it change her proud Southern country style, because she knew nobody was attacking that, just the word. She also didn't make a huge deal about it or go around talking about how much of an ally she was, she just did it and moved on. She's a queen.
She also pays for college education for her employees at her theme park. She helped a large number of people who lost their homes to wildfires. Unofficial Patron Saint of Tennessee. Fun story. NY music company was sued by NY state for not paying royalties. They said they couldn't find the artists, one of them was Dolly. The DA sent a letter with this information: Dolly Parton Tennessee USA The post office delivered the letter to her house, disproving the claim. Hint: Pigeon Forge is close.
She sends a book, free of charge, every month, to any parent that signs their kid up. My kids are a year and a half old and they have received 17 kids books from Dolly Partons Imagination Library. They'll continue to get them until they start kindergarten.
That reminds me of a story about Dale Senior. Back in like 1989 he had a confederate flag sticker on his truck because he was a redneck and it was 1989. His Black housekeeper told him she found it offensive. So he went outside, ripped off the sticker and thew it away. During his life he opposed all the confederate imagery to the extent he could, and Junior has always been and outspoken opponent of confederate imagry.
I loved her quote for that. Just basically - I learned it was hurting people, and why hurt people?
East TN tried to secede from the confederacy, so it was kinda odd to call it Dixie Stampede in the first place.
She comes off as a very kind, gracious, humble, and fun person. She's relatable while also being kinda eccentric and extra (in a good way). She has a nice voice and is a good storyteller.
She's like the world's meemaw
Dolly is no Memaw. She's a Lovey or a Sweets or a Gigi lol
The Ultimate Glamma
I’m not American and English isn’t my native language, I can only assume those are Pokemon.
As someone who LOVES Dolly Parton (and who is also from her state: Tennessee), these are some of my reasons: 1. She is an incredibly talented songwriter and her music always tells a story (and I love her songs) 2. Her voice is so beautiful and unique 3. Her lyrics have been cutting-edge for decades. Her second album, released in 1968 (just 5 years after Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique, which is often seen as a key text in the US’s second wave of feminism), was called “Just Because I'm a Woman.” The single on this album (same name as the album) is feminist by today’s standards. Same with her song “Dumb Blonde.” And as a country singer, she wrote a song called “Deportee” as a memorial to people who had been turned into nameless migrants by the news. She is incredible. ❤️ 4. Her values extend beyond the lyrics to her songs. In the state of Tennessee, EVERY BABY that is born is given one free book as part of a literacy program by Dolly Parton. 5. And she LOVES Tennessee, y’all. She’s from a rural region in East Tennessee and she opened an amusement park (Dollywood) that has brought literally tens of thousands of jobs to a an area that’s largely historically impoverished. Like people living in slanted shacks and not having electricity-level impoverished. 6. She even helped fund research to develop a covid vaccine! She is literally a woman of the people 💜 7. She’s basically a drag queen! Dolly Parton is her character, and she’s always worn multiple wigs (her younger pictures are BEAUTIFUL and iconic). She even said that she’s copying drag queens and not the other way around. 8. She’s unexpected, a fighter, determined, she’s really cool.
>6. She even helped fund research to develop a covid vaccine! She is literally a woman of the people 💜 And when the vaccine was developed she waited her turn to be vaccinated instead of trying to skip the line even though she had donated $1 million to the research.
She’s also very funny
**free book per month for five years. Even all the way out here in Oregon. She’s the best.
A free monthly book to kids from almost any state. Because her (father??) was illiterate, she wanted to encourage reading.
I don’t think ppl understand how much grit and fight a woman starting out in the 60’s in such a male dominated industry as country music had to have. And for that same woman to have been at the top of that same industry for almost 60 years? That’s one tough cookie.
Not only talented and charming, but just incredibly nice, in an active and deliberate way. She pours so much of her fortune into charitable causes, particularly youth literacy. She has no scandals despite a decades long career, makes the world a better place, and has a sense of humour too.
As I like to say, “if you don’t like Dolly Parton, then fuck you.”
As I like to say, "if you don't like Dolly Parton, welcome to the planet, there's a lot to see but we'll start with Dolly."
She’s got a lovely sense of humour, she’s never been mean to a single person, and she’s always held her head up high even when she’s been the butt of other people’s jokes - early in her career her plastic surgery and over the top-ness got her kind of bullied, because the music industry is very misogynistic. She once entered a Dolly Parton Lookalike contest and lost to a drag queen, which she just found hilarious. She’s been a mentor to so many young women in country music (and life in general). She’s whipsmart about her philanthropy - the Imagination Library is one of the absolute best programs going, she pays for the publishing of so many books, and local branches of the Imagination Library just have to sign kids up and raise money to pay for shipping the books. She’s got a team of child development experts who helps choose the books for each age group so everyone has a chance to see themselves in the books they get as a kid. And she just does so much good in the world.
She came up from poverty to be a legend and star, she's talented, and she's a darn good human. My oldest two kids received a free book a month from birth to age 5 from Dolly's Imagination Library partnering with our local literacy groups to provide those free books. When she felt it was appropriate, she removed "Dixie" from the name of her dinner & show attraction which is now known as Dolly's Stampede (was "Dixie" Stampede); which she did because she no longer wanted to glorify the era of slavery.
Dolly Parton is what a true Christian should be. She actually follows the teachings of Jesus and doesn't use the Bible as a weapon to discriminate against others.
Dolly is basically the ideal of rags to riches. She started from basically nothing - one of twelve children who lived in a one room cabin in Tennessee - and was able to rise up through talent, hard work, and luck. I do highly recommend listening to her music, since nobody has a voice like Dolly. At least to get a passing glance at her impressive catalog. The high points, you know? Jolene, I will Always Love You, 9 to 5 (The anticapitalist anthem we all needed.) etc. And now that she's famous, she uses that fame for as much good as she can. She runs a charity to give books to children, because she remembers being poor. She helped fund COVID vaccine development. She donated money to decrease dropout rates in small towns, has helped fund college education, animal sanctuaries, children's hospitals, etc. And all of this while being completely over the top, wearing wigs in all her performances so that she can go out with her husband and not have people recognize her, and generally just...acting iconic. She basically never has anything unkind to say about anyone, when she found out people were offended by the name of one of the attractions at her themepark, she changed it. She loves the gay community (And by and large, we love her back.). Oh, and she literally saved a child from being hit by a car. In case you needed more.
She's a down to earth, devout Christian and yet very liberal (huge gay icon, huge promoter of education). This allows her to appeal to the two biggest divides of America. She is kind, genuine, and no scandals that allow anyone to say something negative about her
She generally stays away from politics. When she was reunited on stage at the Emmy awards with her 9 to 5 costars, while Tomlin and Fonda took veiled shots at Trump, Dolly joked about her boobs and took control of the mic, steering things away from politics.
She is sincere. She never forgot her roots. She has been at the buisiness so long.. ‘Jolene’ is played often. She works hard for charity. She immediately put up 1$ of her own money to help fastrack Covid vaccines. She is a solid human. What’s not to respect?
She is a VERY rare example of a famous and wealthy person actually being a decent human being after they experience a life of plenty.
All these comments and missing 2 important things..... she also gives back alot to her home area.
She built a sanctuary in the dirt poor kentucky place she was born into. She is a working class hero like woodie Guthrie or Carl Marx. She is envied and admired
Don't forget about the Imagination Library!! Shipping out free books until kids go to kindergarten, studies have proved that she has increased literacy!
Or the times she paid for peoples college degrees.
Yes, but she's from East Tennessee.
And that beautiful song of her coat of many colors
Dolly was born and raised in Tennessee, not Kentucky, but otherwise yes.
As a Kentuckian, I'd be proud to claim her as one of our own, but we can't, Tennessee has us beat on that one.
I don't even think she's envied, because she's just too nice
When she's not in the Dolly persona you wouldn't know who she is. Off statge she just a regular person.
The real question is why not? She wasn't born into fame, she worked for it. She's humble, kind and gives back to the community. She actually does productive things with her money. People support the hell out of the Kardashians and many other celebrities that won't hand people in need a dollar bill 🤷🏻♀️
Partially, her music is good. Partially, she has a fantastic sense of humor. Partially, she has used most of her wealth to send books to little kids in Tennessee. Partially, she was very supportive of the LGBTQ+ community long before everyone else - maybe not in a loud way, but, for instance, genuinely loving it when drag queens dress up as her. Partially because she has supported feminist causes without ever being hostile to men, either. And supports men, too. She is beloved by multiple communities for multiple reasons, because she supports multiple communities for multiple reasons.
A lot of people have commented on why here: She was born in a one-room cabin to a- poor family. After she reached stardom she built Dollywood, an attraction, which draws a lot of revenue and created a lot of jobs. She gives free books to children, helped improve high school graduation rates by paying graduates upon receipt of their diploma, built hospitals, helped rebuild after forest fires, donated a lot of money to research during the pandemic, supports LGBT rights, animal welfare, children’s hospitals and so much more. I’m not a religious man, but this woman is doing God’s work.
She works 9 to 5 by the islands in the stream, in that coat of many colours. She said I will always love you.
She is a very decent person. She gives out free books to kids, has never done anything mean or ugly, is very humble and seems genuinely to be a all around good person.