By: Savannah Swanson
Dolly Parton was an amazing songwriter, singer, actress, and businesswomen. Who shaped pop and country culture today with her humor, sharp wit, and one of a kind vocals.
Dolly wrote over 3,000 songs including her most popular ones, “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors”, and “I Will Always Love You”. She became a beloved figure for feminism, LGBTQ+ culture, and country music singers.
By passing her music career Dolly was very kindhearted, as she founded her own library in 1995 called Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. Which gifted over 330 million books to children from birth to the age of 5 across the world for free.
She donated $1 million dollars Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2020, which help fund the COVID-19 vaccine research.
Dolly provided millions of dollars on emergency disaster relief including My People Fund for families affected by the 2016 Gatlinburg wildfires and aid for Hurricane Helene victims.
Ultimately, she helped fund many charities, families, and anything that needed immediate help..
Dolly Parton’s warm personality was loved by many, as her approachable style to connect with people across the world with different backgrounds to her persistence in navigating the music industry and building businesses beyond preforming.
Her maintained and recognizable identity with her 1900s hair, style, and storytelling voice. She also maintained her Appalachian roots while becoming an international celebrity.
Her combination of confidence, humor, humility, and generosity has helped many people embrace their own confidence and style.
Diving into more of her personal life, she got married to Carl Dean in 1966, he was never seen with Dolly in her spotlight and rarely made an appearance publicly with her. She was 1 of 12 children, she loved to cook for her family growing up with her sisters since they needed help feeding their big family.
Her family was very poor but a very loving family which many think that’s why Dolly has a loving nature. She credits her mother for her passion for music singing and writing. She reportedly wrote her first song at five years old with the help of her mother Avie Lee Parton.
She lived Locust Ridge, Tennessee, during her childhood but moved to Nashville as a teenager to pursue music. She met her husband Carl Dean there, they never had children as Dolly wanted to focus on her music business, she was known for being Miley Cyrus’s.
Dolly was very family orientated and always spoke on memories from her childhood even if they weren’t glamorous. Most of her songs are inspired by her family, husband, and her faith in Christianity.
Many described Dolly as a highly generous person, as she donated lots of money to different charities, research centers, and hospitals. She donated millions of dollars to natural disaster help centers like the major flooding in Tennessee in 2021 which her organizations helped raise 700,000 for the affected families, and the Tennessee wildfire in 2016.
In 2018 she helped rededicate Sevier County’s senior center as the My People Senior Activity Center in honor of her parents and continued helping it after.
Her personal acts of kindness never went unnoticed by people as she wrote personal notes to people to congratulate them, encourage, or even to let them know she was thinking of them.
During the 2020 pandemic she read to children who were frightened, she recorded herself reading books for 10 weeks. She also remembered people who helped her and described her as attentive to the people around Dolly. She often acknowledged ordinary people and workers who crossed her path.
After a life of kindness and generosity she died on August 25th, 2026, at age of 80 years old from a brief battle of cancer. Her legacy and the impact that she had and will still have to this day does not go unnoticed.
