Op-ed: Dolly Parton — American!
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Dolly Parton came from nothing.
The fourth of twelve children, born in a one-room cabin in the mountains of Tennessee, Dolly was intimately acquainted with poverty and hardship.
Dolly.
One name was all she ever needed.
When we heard the name, we all knew who you meant; we all felt like we knew her.
If you interviewed average Americans on the street, citing the conditions of Dolly's birth and upbringing, most of those you talked to would claim her life was impossible, little more than something you'd read on the pages of a novel.
Everything we hear from many of our politicians today tells us that a person facing the obstacles that Dolly encountered was destined to live a life of nothing but squalor.
But Dolly was a dreamer.
And Dolly was born in America. Moreover, her story is uniquely American.
A young Dolly always knew she was different. That impoverished Tennessee child wasn't satisfied with her station in life. Although Dolly was never ashamed to be a farmer's daughter, she wanted more than that simple, rural life would ever offer her.
"I wanted, I guess, to be a star," she said.
Although Dolly may have been born in the wilds of Appalachia, she certainly wasn't an ignorant hillbilly, as was displayed in her television interview with Barbara Walters in 1978.
In fact, many of those who thought they were smarter than Dolly learned that she was a shrewd businesswoman, someone who refused to be snookered by Thomas Parker, Elvis Presley's talent manager.
Dolly's stubborn unwillingness to give Parker the rights to her #1 song, "I Will Always Love You," in 1974, would prove her brilliance. Dolly's re-recording of that song for a movie soundtrack wouldn't only climb to the top of the charts again in 1982; Whitney Houston's 1992 rendition of the song would reach number one again, selling over 40 million copies worldwide.
Dolly's career was a coat of many colors, as a singer, songwriter, entertainer, actress, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. Dolly made a fortune in her lifetime and gave away much of it to others.
If anyone ever epitomized the boundless possibilities that America offers to its citizens, that one soul was Dolly Parton.
Besides being an icon, Dolly epitomized America.
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, two of our nation's Founders, died exactly fifty years after signing the Declaration of Independence in 1976. Dolly Parton died fifty years after America's Bicentennial.
Our nation now mourns the loss of this great American original.
When anybody tells you that someone cannot rise from the depths of abject poverty to the height of wealth, international fame and success in America, the evidence will undoubtedly prove them wrong.
They have only to turn their face towards Tennessee.
That place where Dolly was born.
And Dolly was an American.
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R.G. Yoho is an author, speaker, writer, and 2026 and 2022 WWA Spur Award finalist.