Among the virtues that Dolly Parton possessed was her devotion and love for her family. The country queen wanted to reflect this throughout her career through her songs, her Dollywood theme park, and the non-profit organization Imagination Library, in honor of her father, which has donated over 200 million books to children worldwide to date.
The singer of Jolene passed away on August 25 at the age of 80 after a period of ups and downs in her health that she neglected to care for the love of her life, Carl Thomas, who passed away at the age of 82 in March 2025. The singer fell into a deep depression for months.
No one knew the severity of her ailments, and in fact, the cause of her death has not been revealed, but it must have been serious enough for her not to attend to receive her honorary Oscar last November at the XVI edition of the Governors Awards, where Tom Cruise and Debbie Allen, among others, did receive theirs.
Born in a two-room wooden cabin in the Appalachian mountains near Tennessee, her future seemed unpromising. Her parents, Lee, a sharecropper who also did odd construction jobs to make ends meet, and Avie Lee, a homemaker and singer, had twelve children, eleven of whom reached adulthood. She was the fourth to be born.
From her mother, she inherited a part of her talent as she taught her sacred music and Elizabethan ballads that Avie's ancestors had incorporated into American folklore. Dolly's grandfather had been a violin-playing preacher who composed "Singing His Praise," which Kitty Wells later recorded.
The family was so poor that they had no water or electricity, and when the passion for music took hold of young Dolly, she used a tin can contraption that looked like a microphone to brighten the days of her loved ones. No matter how wealthy she became, she never denied her humble origins and, therefore, was fully aware of the needs beyond where her heart reached.
In an interview with People last year, the star confessed that in those sessions "I felt like a star when I stayed on the porch, stuck the cigarette through the crack of my house in Locust Riges, and sang with all my soul." Her great dream was for people to hear her at the historic Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, where her dreams came true at just 13 years old when she was introduced to the audience by the legendary Johnny Cash.
After high school, she went to Nashville, the birthplace of country music, to become a star. It was what she had dreamed of for a long time. She quickly partnered with Porter Wagoner on his television show, where she sang "Coat of Many Colors," a portrayal of the humiliation she experienced in school when her classmates teased her for wearing a coat made of homemade patches, and of course, Jolene. For the latter song, she was inspired by a bank teller who was in love with Carl Thomas, but let it be clear that there was never any infidelity. The duo parted ways in 1974.
Dolly Parton's personal life changed for the better forever in 1964 when, while waiting for the laundry to finish, an attractive man drove by her and called out, "You're going to burn in the sun here, miss." Later on, already an icon, she confessed that what "surprised and delighted me was that while he was talking to me, he looked me in the face, something rare for me. He seemed genuinely interested in knowing who I was and what I did." From that first encounter, the songwriter felt her heart racing.
Therefore, she didn't hesitate to elope and get married in Ringgold, Georgia, on May 30, 1966, as they had found out they could get their marriage license instantly there. The couple exchanged vows in a Baptist church where she wore a modest dress, her mother gave her a Bible and some flowers, and the preacher's wife who married them acted as a witness. As Dolly was paving the way to becoming a global music legend at that time, Fred Foster, owner of Combine Music and Monument Records, advised her not to get married as it would have been detrimental to her career.
As she won awards, Dolly never tired of talking about her origins and, of course, remembering her parents. She once said, "I inherited a very solid spiritual and creative foundation from my mother and her family, and from my father that great will and responsibility. So I think I got a good mix of what my parents instilled in me."
Due to her angelic voice and curvaceous image, RCA Records signed her. Her first hit was "Joshua" (1971), and subsequently, she achieved three more number ones in 1974 with Jolene, I Will Always Love You - a song popularized by Whitney Houston in the movie The Bodyguard (1992) - and Love Is Like a Butterfly.
In retrospect, the first half of the 1970s was the most creatively fertile period of Parton's country music career. She was named Female Vocalist of the Year by the Country Music Association in 1975 and 1976. Additionally, in 1973, she released what some consider her closest to perfection album, My Tennessee Mountain Home, a bittersweet look at a life and tradition she was determined to leave behind.
Initially a victim of industry sexism, but like Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette, she did not back down, and the three of them revolutionized the music world. By her side, sharing the joys and hardships of the profession, was Carl Thomas, who from the beginning chose not to be the center of attention. This desire to remain anonymous led to endless rumors claiming that Carl did not exist because "he's just someone I made up to keep people away from me," Parton commented to the Associated Press in 1984.
In her autobiography Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business (1994), she explained why her husband disliked being in the spotlight as during an awards ceremony in the mid-60s, he was so stunned that he decided he would be better off behind the scenes. "I love you and will support you in your career in any way I can, but I will not attend any more events," wrote her husband, who worked in his father's asphalt paving company when he met the star.
In those bouts of nostalgia that frequently visited her, Parton declared in 1990 on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson that she still remembered that Christmas when all the siblings agreed to give up their own gifts so that their father Lee could buy a wedding ring for Avie Lee. "I would have been about 8 or 10 years old. There were many children at home at that time, and Dad decided that he was finally going to buy a wedding ring for Mom. Of course, that meant that no one else would receive gifts. That cost money."
With over 160 million records sold, Dolly finally became a star and, in life, was the epitome of what it meant to be a legend. She now rests alongside her soulmate, with whom she mutually decided not to have children. Later on, she regretted not having had offspring.