In a 2009 interview with “60 Minutes,” the late country singer Dolly Parton explained why being underestimated made her successful.
“A lot of men thought I was as silly as I looked, I guess,” Parton said. “But by the time they think I don’t know what’s going on, I done got the money and gone.”
Parton, the queen of country music who spent her career defying stereotypes and making music that resonated with each passing generation, died Tuesday after a brief battle with cancer. She was 80 years old.
“She dealt with situations, including sexism, with self-irony and self-deprecation,” said Helen Morales, a UC Santa Barbara professor and “original Dollyologist” who wrote a book about her trip to Dollywood. “Sometimes, this was so that she could make herself the butt of the joke before someone else did.”
The News-Press spoke with Morales after Parton passed away about how the country icon emerged as a force in pop culture and why she continues to resonate with listeners today.
Her big blonde hair, rhinestone outfits and long acrylic nails could be spotted from a mile away. When she was young and just starting out in music, she said she wanted to look just like her hometown’s “town Tramp.” When questioned about her looks, she responded in her song “Backwoods Barbie”: “I might look artificial, but where it counts I’m real.”
Throughout her 60-year career as a country music star, Parton sang about domestic violence, alcoholism, poverty, and double standards between men and women. Her hit song, “9 to 5,” released in 1980, was not just a traditional anthem about sticking it to the man, but also, a poignant, almost laughable commentary on the experiences of women in the workplace.
“Part of what endears us, her mass appeal was, where she could be self-righteous, she was self-ironizing,” said Morales. “There was a humanity to that approach.”
Before Hollywood (and later, Dollywood), was Sevierville, Tennessee. Parton grew up in a humble cabin in the Smoky Mountains as one of 12 children. Her mother, Avie Lee Parton, looked after their family home. Dolly called her sharecropper father, Robert Lee Parton, “the smartest man I have ever known,” despite never learning to read or write.
In 1995, motivated by seeing her father undermined by his illiteracy, Parton created the Imagination Library. The program, which started in her hometown, sends free books to registered children every month until age 5 in all 50 states. At the time of her passing, her organization had sent over 300 million books.
Throughout her career, Parton undertook a wave of other philanthropic efforts. In 1991, she promised every seventh and eighth-grade student in Sevier County $500 if they graduated high school. Sevier County’s high school dropout rate dropped from 35% to 6%.
When fires swept Gatlinburg, Tennessee in 2016, she offered $1,000 per month to families that lost their home. In 2024, she donated $2 millions to victims of Hurricane Helene. She donated to several public health causes such as research for HIV/AIDs in the 80s and the development of the Moderna vaccine during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“She chose to do that rather than accumulate more wealth than herself,” Morales said.
Another part of her enduring legacy, besides giving back to the world, was her ability to evolve with the times.
“Dolly Parton outperforms everybody,” Morales said. “She moved from being a country singer into disco, and collaborated with Beyonce, Miley Cyrus and Galantis. She has a real nose for the zeitgeist.”
Beneath her country twang and “Dollyisms” — quick-witted, self-deprecating comebacks — was a message of hope in her music.
“She said, yes pain, sadness, and hardship,” Morales said. “But there are good things, either within that or to come. She put a real strong emphasis on hope and love.”
Parton’s reach transcended barriers of gender, sexuality, politics and class. When news of her passing broke, she received praise from both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Her passing was felt especially hard in the LGBTQ+ community, whom Parton was vocal about supporting since the 1980s. She even expressed her support in her music.
“But it was always with self-irony,” Morales said. “Not a hectoring finger.”
Parton rarely teetered into electoral politics, but her ideology could be summed up from an interview she gave to Billboard in 2024: “If people want to pass judgement, they’re already sinning. I try to love everybody.”
