DOLLY PARTON
(19 January 1946 – 25 August 2026)
The American singer-songwriter, actress and philanthropist Dolly Parton was an amazing woman, a real superstar who knew herself just as much as she knew her audience. She had an uncanny belief in what she did and her natural talents saw her through a long and productive life and career. Dolly was Dolly and nobody else and there will never be another like her. She wrote hundreds of songs, Country-style and popular middle-of-the-road tunes that saw her winning award after award. She was so good at what she did, that two of her most famous songs, ‘Jolene’ and ‘I Will Always Love You’ were both written on the same day. The Queen of Country music, the mistress of popular songs, Dolly did it all. She was so kind, so gentle and so generous, that I doubt she had any enemies. She was a thorough professional, the winner of nearly 200 major accolades plus almost 400 nominations.
Dolly Rebecca Parton Dean was born into a poverty-stricken family in Tennessee in a one-room cabin, the fourth child of a mother who had no less than twelve children. She made her first guitar out of an old mandolin and some guitar strings, but then an uncle gave her a real one and she set off on a career that began as a church singer and progressed as a performer on local television. She made her first record at the age of 13 and appeared at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. She wed her one and only husband, Carl Dean, and they stayed married for nearly sixty years, until his death in 2025. They never had children because of Dolly’s health issues, but they did help to raise some of the Parton family youngsters in Nashville.
Dolly wrote and sang a string of hits, but perhaps her most successful was the song she wrote for the comedy 9 to 5 (1980) in which she made her film acting debut, alongside Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dabney Coleman. It was a massive hit, spawned a TV series and a stage show with new numbers penned by Dolly herself. She then appeared opposite Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), was in the critically reviled Rhinestone with Sylvester Stallone (we all make mistakes) and another huge success, Steel Magnolias, with Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine, Daryl Hannah and Julia Roberts, a comedy-drama about how women bond together. In the 1992 romantic comedy Straight Talk she played a woman who becomes a successful radio talk show host. Other film credits included a cameo as herself in The Beverly Hillbillies, another cameo as herself in Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous and a voice role on Gnomeo and Juliet (as Dolly Gnome). Her last film was the musical comedy Joyful Noise (2012) with Queen Latifah, Keke Palmer and Kris Kristofferson, but it was not a success.
Life for Dolly Parton was not just accepting the adulation of her fans as she continuously gave something back in the form of philanthropy. She created the non-profit-making Dollywood Foundation to help children in education, including the Buddy Progamme for older, perhaps lonely students. Her literacy programme was the Imagination Library where she donated books every month to encourage children to read. Other charitable work involved the aiding of employees at Dollywood (paying for their tuition fees, etc), at the Tennessee theme park she established in 1986. The Dollywood Foundation also helped the American Red Cross and many Aids charities, medical centres, children’s hospitals, disaster reliefs and other community aid projects as well as contributing $1 million towards research into the Covid-19 vaccine.
Out of her work came so much goodness from a lady who knew where she was going and what she had to do to help others. It is hard to imagine a life without Dolly Parton, that blonde-bewigged icon, the diminutive performer with the endearing personality and sense of humour and a humanitarian through and through. There will never be another Dolly Parton.
MICHAEL DARVELL
