Legendary singer-songwriter and country music icon Dolly Parton has died at the age of 80.
Parton was born in a one-room cabin in Pittman Center, Tennessee, the fourth of twelve children. She credited her musical ability to her mother, who sang folk ballads around the house. Parton began her performing career as a child and moved to Nashville the day after she graduated high school, though she had already recorded her first single, “Puppy Love,” at age 13. She signed with Combine Publishing shortly after arriving in Nashville and wrote songs for artists such as Bill Phillips and Skeeter Davis. She released her debut album, Hello, I’m Dolly, in 1967.
The same year she released her debut, Parton joined Porter Wagoner to join The Porter Wagoner Show on syndicated TV. Wagoner also convinced his label, RCA Victor, to sign her. Parton’s first release for the label was a duet with Wagoner, “The Last Thing on My Mind,” released in 1967, and for the next six years, the two had a long string of top 10 singles. While Parton’s solo singles weren’t initially as successful as her duets with Wagoner, her single “Mule Skinner Blues” reached number three, and subsequent solo songs such as “Coat of Many Colors,” “Tennessee Mountain Home” and “Jolene” all cracked the top 20.
Parton, seeking to focus on her solo career, performed her last duet concert with Wagoner in April 1974, releasing “I Will Always Love You” about her professional split from Wagoner that same year. Parton released nearly 50 solo albums during her career, 10 of which were certified Gold or Platinum. She also collaborated with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt on 1987’s Trio and 1999’s Trio II.
Dolly Parton made her feature film acting debut in 9 to 5 in 1980, and opened the amusement park Dollywood in 1986. She was a co-owner of Sandollar Productions, whose credits include the film Father of the Bride and the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She also had a long history of charitable contributions, including her literacy program, Dolly’s Imagination Library, which had donated 100 million books to local communities by 2018. She also donated to various other charities, including the American Red Cross and HIV/AIDS-related charities. She’s received 11 Grammy awards and has been nominated 55 times, in addition to having 26 songs reach No. 1 on the Billboard country charts, being inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, having a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
For Black listeners, Parton’s strongest musical bond may have been forged through Whitney Houston. Parton wrote and first recorded 1973’s “I Will Always Love You,” but Houston transformed the ballad into a global hit for the 1992 movie “The Bodyguard.” Houston’s performance won a Grammy Award and helped the song cross all musical boundaries. Parton later revealed that she used royalties generated by Houston’s rendition to purchase an office complex in a historically Black section of Nashville. The investment placed money from one of popular music’s most successful recordings back into a community associated with the woman who sent it soaring. Parton showed curiosity about the culture of Hip-Hop. She delivered a playful rap during a 2013 appearance with Queen Latifah after the two starred together in the musical comedy “Joyful Noise.” Years later, she praised Lil Nas X after hearing his stripped down interpretation of “Jolene,” according to the Los Angeles Times.