Dolly Parton’s death at 80 surprised many of us who followed her career for decades. Parton was more than a singer, songwriter, actress, businesswoman and philanthropist. She was an example of what a person could be and should be.
“Dolly Parton is the most famous, most universally beloved, and most widely respected woman who has ever emerged from country music, a role model not only for other singers and songwriters, but for working women everywhere,” wrote Mary A. Bufwack and Robert K. Oermann in “Finding Her Voice,” their study of women in country music. “Hers is a true Horatio Alger, up‑by‑your‑bootstraps success story – Daisy Mae Yokum of Dogpatch who turned into Mae West of Hollywood, a mountain butterfly who soared with eagles.”
“Once upon a time and far, far away, back in the hollers at the foothills of the great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee there lived a little girl with yellow hair, blue‑green eyes, fair skin, and freckles. She loved to read as much as she loved to dream. She read everything she could get her hands on, but mostly she loved fairy tales. So, I grew up to be a fairy princess of a sort, more of a Cinderella story, the rags to riches kind.”
Parton’s career was a balancing act between her down‑home roots and her mainstream aspirations. Her famous looks, which influenced her career as much as her music did, were a deliberate ploy to win attention from a public that viewed country singers as illiterate hillbillies. Parton wanted to be heard, and if it took a big blond wig and big tits to do it so be it: “It costs a lot to make a person look this cheap,” she famously said. “If I were a man I would have been a drag queen.”
Still, there is more to Parton than met the eye. “Parton’s appeal came through a fortuitous combination of physical attractiveness, singing talent, and a genius for song composition,” wrote Bill C. Malone in his classic text “Country Music U.S.A.” Her distinctive, “clear as a bell” soprano combined with a unique gift for writing songs to make Parton a musical force to be reckoned with. And while Parton’s busty blonde looks are pre‑feminist, she became a role model for women during the early days of the women’s movement.
“In contrast to the often tragic and always exhausting lives of so many female country singers, Dolly Parton somehow always retained an impression of being mistress of her own destiny, adapting, but never compromising, her style and material to suit the demands made of her,” Charlie Gillett wrote in “The Sound of the City.” Other country queens had to endure drunk, abusive and unfaithful husbands. Parton’s husband was Carl Dean, who kept to himself and let his wife lead her own life.
