January 19, 1946 - August 25, 2026
Dolly Parton was born in Sevierville, Tennessee, the fourth of 12 children of Robert Lee Parton, a tobacco farmer, and his wife Avie Lee. She described her family as being "dirt poor" and outlined her family's poverty in such songs as "
Coat Of Many Colors" and "
Hard Candy Christmas."
The day after she graduated from high school in 1964, Parton moved to Nashville. Her first encounter with her future husband Carl Dean was at the Wishy-Washy Laundromat on her initial day in the Music City.
Her husband Carl Dean ran an asphalt road-surface-paving business in Nashville and stayed out of the spotlight. "He doesn't want to be in show business," Dolly told
Extra's special correspondent Alecia Davis. "He's glad when I'm gone. He's glad when I'm home. He's funny. He makes me laugh a lot… We can be quiet together or we can be fun together."
After Carl died in 2025 at age 82, Parton released a heartfelt song about him called "
If You Hadn't Been There."
Dolly had no children of her own but was godmother to Miley Cyrus. They were very close. "I have an angel by my side," Cyrus posted when Parton died in 2026. "We will see her in all of the most beautiful things."
Dolly the Sheep, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, was born on July 5, 1996. The cell was taken from a mammary gland. She was named "Dolly" as, in the words of the project leader, "We couldn't think of a more impressive pair of glands than Dolly Parton's."
She was huge fan of Cat Stevens, and said she owned every album he made. "Dolly Parton was a good woman and one of the greatest artists of true country soul," he posted when Parton died.
In 1986 she launched the Dollywood theme park, formerly Silver Dollar City, in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Under her care it became a major tourist destination, and although Parton often visited, she claimed she was "too terrified" to go on any of the rides.
Asked by South Florida Gay News about her songwriting routine, Dolly replied: "I write all kinds of ways. In the middle of the night, if it's something that I dreamed, if I am taking a bath, I have a tape recorder nearby or a notepad. I can write anywhere really, anytime for any reason."
"Sometimes, I plan in advance to take two weeks to just write, don't call me, and I just write in my old mountain home or lake house," she added. "I just let it flow and write till I get tired of it. Then I come back home. I usually take my old set of fingernails off, get a new set put back on, and then get back at it!"
She anonymously entered a Dolly Parton look-alike contest at gay bar in Los Angeles, showing up as a highly exaggerated version of herself. It was judged by applause, and Parton claimed she came in last.
On April 20, 1959, a 13-year-old Dolly Parton released her first single, "Puppy Love," on a small Louisiana label, Goldband Records. She had written the song with her uncle Bill Owens when she was 11.
In 1995, Dolly Parton launched the
Imagination Library in Sevier County, Tennessee, where she grew up. The organization sends books to children every month to foster a love of reading. It started with just a few dozen books, but grew to serve over 3 million children around the world.
In the 2018 edition of
Guinness World Records, Dolly Parton has two entries: Most Hits on Billboard's Hot Country Songs Chart by a Female Artist (107) and Most Decades with a Top 20 Hit on Billboard's Hot Country Songs Chart (six between 1960s-2010s). The latter record was achieved when Dolly's 2016 re-recording of "
Jolene" peaked at #18.
Dolly Parton had a number of small tattoos, which she told Larry King aren't a statement: She got inked to cover scar tissue.
"I have a tendency to scar easily, and I'm so fair-skinned that I stay purple right where I've had a scar," the country star explained. "So I started having little pastel tattoos, pastel butterflies or little things, just to cover scars."
Dolly Parton revealed on an
Wired Auto-Complete Interview that she had a weakness for potatoes.
"Every diet I ever fell off of has been because of a potato," she admitted. "Either French fries, or mashed potatoes, or baked potatoes. Potato, potato, potato! I never met a spud I didn't like."
Parton was very generous in her philanthropy. In 2017, she donated $1 million to the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in Nashville, where her niece was treated for leukemia. In 2020, she gave another $1 million to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center for coronavirus vaccine research.
Dolly Parton slept in full make-up. She started this practice in the 1980s as a precaution because she wanted to be camera-ready in the event of an emergency.
This doesn't seem like a good idea, but Parton said it doesn't matter when you clean your face, as long as you do it once a day. She would wipe off the makeup and reapply it after waking up.
America was divided culturally and politically when Parton died from cancer in 2026 at 80, but she bridged those gaps - just about everyone could agree that she was one of the greatest entertainers and humanitarians the country has produced. Flags were lowered to half-staff in her honor for a full week.
