OBITUARY BY DARKSIDE: Dolly Parton, 1946-2026

The following epitaph is by our very own Darkside. 

The butterflies of the world are all lying in state today. The legendary Dolly Parton, singer, actress, songwriter, activist, philanthropist, business owner, and general ray of glittery gold sunshine in a sometimes truly bleak and tragic world, has passed away at the age of 80. While news of her passing isn't a total surprise (her husband passed away about 18 months ago and she had been canceling and postponing multiple events for undisclosed “health reasons” recently,) that doesn't make the loss any less shocking...or less painful.

Dolly Rebecca Parton was born January 19, 1946 in a one room cabin in Pittman Center, Tennessee, the fourth of twelve children. Parton channeled the struggle of her family's poverty into music, singing in church at six and playing a homemade guitar at seven. Upon graduating from Sevier County High School in 1964, she moved to Nashville the next day to make it as a musician. Despite recording her first single at 13 and releasing her first album at 19, she had a shaky entrance into the scene. And despite her reputation as a prolific songwriter in Nashville, her label felt her high soprano was better suited to bubblegum pop music, and her earliest professional singles struggled. Yet after her songwriting credits continued to score country hits, her label relented and finally allowed her to record country.

Her earliest success came as a duo with singer Porter Waggoner, recording several duets with him and joining both his television program and traveling road show. While her duets with Wagoner would prove successful, her solo ventures still struggled, and eventually, Porter himself encouraged her to record the popular Jimmie Rogers song “Mule Skinner Blues,” finally resulting in one of her first major solo chart successes. Following successful singles such as “Coat of Many Colors,” “My Tennessee Mountain Home” and the mega-success “Jolene,” Parton finally parted with Wagoner in 1974, penning the tear-jerking “I Will Always Love You” about the split. Elvis Presley showed interest in the song, but after Parton heard from his manager, the famously sleazy Colonel Tom Parker, that she would have to sign over half the publishing rights, Parton smartly refused. She used this business savvy, in particular leveraging people's expectations of her as a typical “dumb blonde,” to her benefit, revealing herself as a very intelligent and skilled businessperson.

Beginning in the 1980s, Parton began an acting career in earnest, landing lead roles in such films as "9 to 5," "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," "Rhinestone," and "Steel Magnolias." In 1985, she also bought up the struggling Silver Dollar City theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee near her hometown and rebranded it into the wildly successful Dollywood (I've been there, try the Cinnamon Bread!). 

While the park itself is a massive philanthropic effort on its own (bringing lots of money and job creation to the chronically impoverished Southern Appalachian region), Dolly didn't stop there, establishing the Dollywood Foundation to provide scholarships to local students, which eventually begat the Imagination Library, a literacy campaign that provides free books every month to any child who signs up until the child's fifth birthday. In addition, Dollywood itself houses the Eagle Mountain Sanctuary, a massive aviary housing endangered bald eagles. In addition, she donated one million dollars to the pharmaceutical company Moderna during the COVID-19 pandemic, a contribution they say greatly helped with the creation of their COVID vaccine.

One lesser known factoid about Dolly is that Sandollar Productions, her production company with business partner Sandy Gallin, was one of the producers of "Buffy The Vampire Slayer." If you've enjoyed any of the television made in the past twenty years that was clearly inspired by Buffy, that's something else to thank her for.

I have to say, as a fellow East Tennessean, losing such a shining example of a local girl made good who succeeded truly hurt; I started sobbing hysterically as I wrote this. However, despite that, some part of me still wants to refuse the sadness. Dolly's life and public image was like pink champagne: bright, bubbly, feminine, and sweet. This was a woman who seemed to greet anything and everybody with a big smile and a sharp giggle. She certainly wouldn't want that to change, so instead of pulling up one of her more tear-jerker songs to commemorate... “I Will Always Love You,” “Coat of Many Colors,” or one of her more gospel tinged songs... I'm going to select one of my personal favorites that always seemed to better suit Dolly's personality... Light, Bouncy and Fun.

Rest easy, Dolly. We truly will always love you.

Photo Credit: Irving Penn