The world has dimmed, if just a bit.
Dolly Parton, the incomparable singer-songwriter, actress, businesswoman and philanthropist, has died at the age of 80. She was previously deceased by her longtime husband, Carl Dean. Her surviving family and representatives confirmed that she died of cancer, after publicly grappling with numerous health problems in recent years. They remembered her lovingly in a video statement, adding that she “lived in the light.”
Well said.
Parton was indeed bright, and shining – often literally, in the wonderfully flamboyant, bedazzled, form-fitting outfits she favored over the years – with a bold, boisterous personality and a singing voice that danced and delighted.
Born and raised in poverty in mid-century Tennessee, the child of farmers and sharecroppers, Parton grew up as one of 12 children. In interviews, she recalled her father as one of the smartest people she’d ever known, despite his literacy issues. Her mother was the leader of the household, she added, tending to everyone with care despite her own health problems, and often entertaining the lot with ballads and regional folk tales.
Throughout her life, Parton performed. First on local radio and television programs, then on the famed radio show “Grand Ole Opry.” Her star only rose from there, as a songwriter to start, before she became a singer herself. Her impoverished yet loving upbringing would serve as inspiration for her sizable body of work, which includes mega-hits like “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors,” “9 to 5” and “I Will Always Love You.”
Her decades of performance work onstage and on screen, and her featured turns in films such as musical “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,” feminist workplace comedy “9 to 5” and beloved drama “Steel Magnolias” – which collectively earned her 11 Grammys, three Emmys, six Golden Globes, a Tony Award and two Oscar nominations – cemented her legacy as the “Queen of Country” and an American icon.
Parton’s empire would also expand to include the Dollywood Company, the business behind the theme park bearing her name, and beverage company Dolly Wines.
Parton The Person
It merits mention that Parton, in addition to being a generational performing and songwriting talent, was funny.
When asked by correspondent Barbara Walters about her curvy figure during a 1977 interview, she famously, jokingly replied: “It costs a lot of money to look this cheap.” Later in life, when she grappled with kidney stones, she joked, “Lord, they dig more stones out of me a year than the rock quarry in Rockwood, Tennessee.” Examples abound from there.
But the most luminous aspect of Parton’s living could be found in her generous spirit. She long encouraged others on their respective paths (and often to acclaim of their own), both as a generous, collaborative artist and as an author several times over.
Yes, Parton gave. And gave, and gave. She was said to have an estimated net worth of $450 million, between her performing work, the rights to her songs and her assorted business ventures. And ever since the earlier days of her career, she found ways to share the wealth.
She did so through the Dollywood Foundation, which runs her famed Imagination Library – one of her most enduring positive impacts – as well as through various disaster relief contributions, through the protection of animals, through vocal support of the LGBTQ and Black communities, and through helping to fund development of the Covid vaccine.
That’s an incomplete list. In all, it’s estimated that she gave away $600 million in her lifetime.
Following her passing, tributes poured in from those who had worked with her, learned from her, and loved her – recalling her influence as well as her inherent sweetness. “If there are truly angels on earth, then we have just lost one,” former co-star Sally Field said in an Instagram post. “There will never be another.”
Actress and activist Jane Fonda, another former co-star of Parton’s, beautifully, irreverently summarized her as “the voluptuous embodiment of empathy” in her own post, adding: “More than anyone I have ever known, Dolly will always be with us because she was so present, so powerful, so generous and playful that she is woven into all our lives and hearts forever.”
There are few better ways to honor someone who spread such hope, joy and beauty in their lifetime, than by finding solace in her music. As Parton encouraged us in one especially heartening, heart-filled song – we ought to cast our eyes toward morning’s light, despite our hurting, as a way of reminding ourselves: “Everything’s gonna be all right. It’s gonna be okay.”
As long as we can live and love one another as Dolly did, that is. ◼️
