Dolly Parton 80 passes away. I didn’t listen to a lot of her music but she was icon among icon’s. Rest in peace.
An amazing woman.
Talented, and immensely kind and thoughtful.
“It cost a lot of money to look this cheap”.
She was adorable.
She was a kind and generous person. We need more of those.
R.I.P. Dolly
As I had posted some months ago, Dolly this year made a large donation /contribution to the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital in Knoxville, TN,
which was consequently renamed the Dolly Parton Children’s Hospital.
Those coming to USA’s most visited national park, the Great Smoky Mountains NP, can find a statue to Dolly near the Sevier County Courthouse in Sevierville
and nearby in Pigeon Forge is Dollywood, Dolly’s Theme Park.
Dolly captured a broad audience with her song/album “Coat of Many Colors”
Dolly’s song “Jolene” is a classic.
Many have since covered “Jolene”, but Dolly’s favorite cover was by Mindy Smith.
Dolly was often known as “Queen of Country” and even “Backwoods Barbie”
(as she entitled one of her records).
Dolly’s “country”/Nashville music output with Porter Wagoner, then solo,
will endure as a large part of her legacy.
I gravitate more toward Dolly’s mountain/bluegrass roots music.
Dolly even gathered material for a bluegrass compilation album.
She became more known “mainstream” in film “9 to 5”.
Dolly teamed with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris as the Trio -
Indeed, Rest In Peace, Dolly.
Your life left this region and the whole world a better place.
I am truly saddened by this news. For you SACD collectors, the Dolly Parton album Trio (cover photo elsewhere posted) is coming out in SACD from Analogue Productions. It should be a good one! At this time it can be preordered from Music Direct and Acoustic Sounds and probably other online stores. It’s been on my wish list for a while!
Local (to me) independent, listener-supported radio station WDVX-FM
is currently playing many songs of Dolly’s and related others -
live stream is available at wdvx.com
A special program re Dolly’s music compiled by station founder Tony Lawson
is set to air/live stream at 5-6pm EDT today.
The first version of Jolene I heard was Mandy Smith’s. I was unaware this version was Dolly’s favorite.
Their albums Trio and Trio II are just outstanding. Their rendition of After the Goldrush on Trio II often brings me to tears for some reason.
Dolly was a tremendous talent as well as a generous soul. She advocated youth learning programs and contributed generously to Chicago’s Open Books program, a reading program and free book source for Chicago’s youth. A project I am proud to say my eldest daughter is associated with.
In memory I am listening to Dolly’s Coat of Many Colors.
Dolly’s program for books for kids is Imagination Library
I hope Dolly made provision to maintain funding for this most important contribution.
My home had a power outage soon after posting about the WDVX programming,
so turned to several battery capable radios tuned to 89.9 throughout the house
to fill with the musical memories/tribute to Dolly.
Power back on now…
I will check Radio New Zealand International on shortwave later tonight as I suspect they will have some of Dolly’s songs mixed in.
Yes, I am aware of it. Open Books provides considerable leverage for donor funds for inner city literacy programs as well as placing books in homes. Contributions are accepted.
Just received from the Bijou Theatre (posted minus the photos):
"Today, East Tennessee and the world lost one of its brightest lights.
It is difficult to find words big enough for Dolly Parton. She was a once-in-a-generation songwriter and performer, an icon recognized in nearly every corner of the world, a brilliant businesswoman, a champion for children and literacy, and one of the greatest ambassadors East Tennessee will ever know.
But to those of us lucky enough to call these mountains home, Dolly was something more. She was ours.
She carried East Tennessee with her everywhere she went. In her songs and stories, in her faith, her humor, her generosity and her unmistakable mountain voice, she showed the world something beautiful about the place and the people who raised her. No matter how brightly her star shone or how far from home it carried her, she never stopped shining some of that light back on us.
We are deeply honored that, over the course of her remarkable life, some of Dolly’s magic found its way into the Bijou Theatre.
Dolly once told us that the Bijou was among the first stages she performed on as a young girl, before leaving East Tennessee for Nashville and beginning the legendary career that would follow. Decades later, she returned to this old theatre in ways we will never forget.
Bijou Theatre
One of our favorite Dolly stories happened quietly in 2019.
The Smoky Mountain Burlesque Festival was performing at the Bijou, and Dolly’s niece Rebecca was among the performers. Dolly wanted to see her niece perform, but, as the beloved “Book Lady” to millions of children, she hadn’t felt that most burlesque venues were quite the right place for her to make an appearance.
The Bijou was different.
So, together with Dolly’s team, our staff hatched a plan. Her tour bus parked discreetly alongside the theatre. We snuck her through the stage door and up to one of the Bijou’s upper opera boxes, where she sat dressed in black, hidden behind the curtain until the house lights went down. Throughout the evening, she slipped in and out before the lights came up so no one would know she was there.
The audience that night had no idea that Dolly Parton was sitting among them.
Afterward, she joined the performers and our staff onstage for a photograph. And then, in the most Dolly gesture imaginable, she encouraged us to share the photos publicly so her appearance might help draw a bigger audience for the festival’s second night.
She could have made the moment about herself. Instead, she immediately found a way to use her enormous star power to shine a light on someone else.
That was Dolly.
Five years later, she came back.
Over Memorial Day weekend in 2024, under extraordinary secrecy, our staff worked alongside Dolly and her team to transform the Bijou into the set for Dolly Parton & Family: Smoky Mountain DNA – Family, Faith & Fables.
For three unforgettable days, Dolly and generations of the Parton and Owens families filled our stage with their music and stories. The project is a kind of musical family scrapbook, tracing their roots from the United Kingdom in the 1600s through generations of Appalachian life and, eventually, to the mountains of East Tennessee that shaped Dolly herself. The companion docuseries centers performances filmed right here at the Bijou, where Dolly sang alongside her sisters, nieces, cousins and other members of her family.
To stand inside this theatre and watch that history being made was indescribable.
For our staff, working on those days will forever remain one of the crowning joys and achievements of our lives at the Bijou. We knew while it was happening that we had been entrusted with something extraordinarily special. Today, those memories feel even more precious.
Dolly Parton’s legacy is almost impossible to measure. It lives in the songs that became part of the American songbook. It lives in Dollywood and the thousands of jobs and opportunities she created here at home. It lives in the hundreds of millions of books placed into the hands of children through her Imagination Library. It lives in generations of artists who learned from her that you could come from a little cabin in the mountains of East Tennessee and still dream as big as the whole world.
And it lives in countless smaller acts of kindness that most of us will never know about.
We were fortunate enough to witness a few of them.
Today, we are heartbroken. But more than anything, we are grateful.
Grateful that Dolly never forgot where she came from. Grateful that she spent a lifetime making East Tennessee proud. Grateful that she showed the world that ambition and kindness, glamour and humility, extraordinary success and extraordinary generosity could all exist in the same person.
And forever grateful that, from a young girl dreaming of Nashville to a global icon returning home to tell her family’s story, Dolly Parton shared a little of her light with the Bijou.
The old theatre feels a little different today knowing she won’t walk through our stage door again.
But what an incredible gift that she did.
We will always love you, Dolly.
Bijou Theatre
With love and gratitude from all of us at the Bijou Theatre."
Wonderful post
There is a special place in heaven for Dolly Parton! What a beautiful soul.
Several US states have recently reduced or completely eliminated state funding for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, impacting book-gifting operations for young children. [1, 2]
States with Funding Cuts or Eliminations
Missouri: Lawmakers slashed state funding from $6 million down to $2 million. This major reduction forced a freeze on new child enrollments starting July 1, 2026, and put existing deliveries at risk. [1, 2]
Indiana: Lawmakers completely removed state appropriations for the program, shifting the reliance onto private donations and fundraising efforts by state leadership. [1, 2]
Washington: The state lost its direct state funding for the statewide program, prompting local officials to push for restored financial support. [1, 2]
Maine: Recent state-level budget shifts and decisions have created funding uncertainty and challenges for local program operations. [1, 2]
Kentucky: Lawmakers proposed significant cuts to the state’s matching funds, though strong public advocacy and pressure ultimately helped preserve the funding. [1]