It is impossible to think of Dolly Parton without our minds drifting to that voluminous blonde bouffant, those endless nails, that impossible voice timbre, and that silhouette squeezed into tight jeans. The mother of country music insisted from a very young age on building the image she always wanted and maintained until her last days. With her, at 80 years old, the great female voice of a genre that was once reserved for men and that she decided to conquer by force, passes away. With her, a musical and aesthetic icon dies. With her, one of the greatest legends that Tennessee has ever known dies. And that is no small feat.
They say that even before she could read, Dolly Parton was already composing. Out of simple and pure intuition. Born into a family of 12 siblings, with scarce resources, in the small town of Sevierville, she didn't need television, movies, or magazines to start weaving in her head a career that would end up being immense. It happened one day when she accompanied her mother to the city. There, she saw a woman with a huge bouffant, red lips, well-made up, and wearing heels, whom her mother ordered her not to look at and labeled as trash. "I thought: 'That's what I want to be when I grow up: trash', she recounted on several occasions later, already a country music queen.
For months, Parton had been forced to postpone various commitments, especially the six-concert residency she had planned in Las Vegas as a comeback to the stage, due to health issues. She attributed them to having put her own well-being aside to care for her husband of almost six decades, Carl Dean, who passed away in March 2025. This Tuesday, a little over a year later, the most popular country music star has passed away, as confirmed by her family to Reuters.
With her characteristic nasal and penetrating tone, Parton became a star in the 1970s after performing on the streets and trying her luck in Nashville. In 1972, her big hit arrived: Jolene, which topped the country charts from the get-go. That jealousy attack towards a cashier flirting with her husband remains a bible for any female voice aiming for success. Examples include Miley Cyrus - mentored by Parton - or Beyoncé with their own versions of the classic.
Shortly after came I Will Always Love You, which, according to rumors, the singer wrote the same night as Jolene as a counterpoint and two decades later would become a global hit in Whitney Houston's voice as the soundtrack of The Bodyguard. But the author of that classic was that white, blonde woman who always dressed in a cowboy aesthetic. Iconic is the cover of the album that included both songs: Parton sitting with crossed legs, wearing striped overalls, with a tender gaze.
Parton won 11 Grammy Awards during the six decades she dedicated to music, wrote over 3,000 songs, became one of the best-selling female artists of all time - surpassing 100 million records sold -, made country music explode into a phenomenon beyond the borders of the United States, and never wanted to assume the star role that was rightfully hers, even though a statue was erected in her honor in her home state. She dedicated herself to promoting literacy programs for children in various English-speaking countries, awarded scholarships to high school students in Tennessee, and donated a million dollars for Moderna to develop the Covid vaccine.
In the 1980s, as she had done in country music, Parton stormed Hollywood alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, that trio of secretaries in 9 to 5, signed on for four more films - especially Steel Magnolias - and delved even deeper into the aesthetic she had embraced. She wore tight jumpsuits with embedded sparkles, dazzling satin dresses, abundant makeup, and of course, the unmistakable blonde bouffant. "I just wanted to be pretty, grab attention, be colorful, and be seen. When they say, 'Less is more,' I think it's nonsense. More is more. I'm flashy and showy. If I hadn't been a girl, I definitely would have been a drag queen. I love extravagance, I love all that glitter and color," she acknowledged in an interview with the U.S. edition of Elle magazine.
She ended up hosting her own television show, Dolly Variety Show; was a host and guest artist on Saturday Night Live, and when asked to tone down her style, she refused. She made it even more flamboyant, bought a wig for every day of the year - as she herself claimed - and built a theme park named Dollywood, visited by over three million people annually to enjoy traditional Tennessee food and listen to some local musical performances - including some by the owner herself.
In recent years, Dolly Parton had also served as a mentor to women wanting to delve into country music, including Ella Langley, one of the genre's current great phenomena. But above all, she was a great mentor to Miley Cyrus, even from her youthful breakthrough with Hannah Montana. The singer's entire career is marked by her self-proclaimed godmother, and particularly emotional is the joint performance of Jolene they shared in 2010 during Dollywood's 25th anniversary.