The great musical artist Dolly Parton has passed away at the age of 80. I purposely used “musical artist” and not “country artist.” Even though Dolly is best known and started in Nashville as a country artist, she was more than that, for she sang many other genres of music and her songs have been covered by the likes of Beyoncé, Norah Jones, Melissa Etheridge, Shania Twain, Merle Haggard, Miley Cyrus, and, of course, most famously Whitney Houston.
I shouldn’t even reduce her to a musical artist, as she was an actress, writer, and businesswoman. She built a business empire estimated at 450 to 650 million. She focused on ownership of her intellectual property. Her catalog of over 3,000 songs generates millions in annual royalties alone.
She reportedly turned down Elvis Presley’s offer to record her song “I Will Always Love You” because Elvis and his team wanted half ownership of the song.
She branched into tourism, hospitality, most famously Dollywood Theme Park, and consumer products. She owned dinner theaters and attractions, consumer products, and licensing.
Not bad for a young country girl who left a one room cabin in Locust Ridge Tennessee to follow her dream in Nashville. She lived in poverty after being rejected as a country singer who didn’t fit the prototype female country singer. She kept at it and started receiving recognition for her songwriting.
She eventually made it to TV. That’s where I was first introduced to Dolly as a child.
On Saturday afternoon, after the morning cartoons, American Bandstand, Soul Train, and Wide World of Sports was a country-and-western program, “The Porter Wagoner Show.” If it was extremely hot or raining outside, that show was one of the few options on TV. It was either that or professional bowling.
I didn’t tune in long for either, but I watched Porter long enough to see someone who was a regular on his show. I didn’t know who she was, and she sounded like typical country music to me. But I noticed two things: how beautiful she was and her big hairdo. I guess that was in during that period.
I didn’t find out until later that it was Dolly Parton.
She then went on to much more fame through song, TV, and movies. I liked her and that she was talented, but that was about it.
When the movie “The Bodyguard,” starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston, came out along with its soundtrack, I noticed that the major hit “I Will Always Love You” was written by Dolly Parton.
In the movie, there is a scene where Kevin and Whitney hear Dolly’s version of the song on a jukebox. Of course, the song and video Whitney sang were a smash hit, and the royalties earned Dolly $10 million.
That in itself is a wonderful rags-to-riches story. But the story behind the song royalties helps explain the kind of woman Dolly was.
I learned years later that Dolly used over 10 million in royalties from Whitney’s cover to build an office complex and strip mall in a historically Black neighborhood in Nashville. She famously called the property The House That Whitney Built.
In addition, she started Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. Founded in 1995, this program mails a high-quality, age-appropriate book every month to registered children from birth until they start school. It operates across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Republic of Ireland.
Dolly started the program to honor her father, who was illiterate but possessed immense wisdom.
From disaster relief to donations to hospitals and medical research, she not only gave money, but she spoke up for the downtrodden, the underdog, the forgotten, and the oppressed.
She defied and challenged the norms in her industry and region of the country. She challenged male dominance and racial hierarchy prevalent in her music industry and region of the country.
She removed the word “Dixie” from her popular dinner theater attraction Dixie Stampede, rebranding it as simply Dolly Parton’s Stampede.
Her singing and songwriting made her famous, but her love and compassion towards others made her beloved by millions.
Rest well, Miss Dolly.
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