Dolly Parton
By Shannon Paplow
Wms 1001
January 19, 1946, in Little Pigeon River in the Great Smoky Mountains Dolly Rebecca Parton is born. A life that would change peoples lives for generations, giving new life to a greatly depressed community. With the voice of an angel Dolly Parton has sang her way out of poverty and into the hearts of millions. Is it her big blonde hair, her clear blue-green eyes, maybe it’s her smile that can brighten the darkest of nights, or her contagious giggle, that has made her a role model for men and women from 8-80.
The Partons were very poor in fact in fact that in lieu of money Robert Lee Parton paid the doctor with a sac of cornmeal for bringing Dolly into the world. Dolly has been writing and singing ever since she was very little. Her earliest experiences being some of the girls in the family began singing, and started a group that would travel to churches and perform for the services. Before she had even turned ten Dolly Parton had a job singing on TV for the Cass Walker show. This was her first real experience with an audience and she instantly fell in love with it. At the age of twelve, Dolly made her first record called Puppy Love. At fourteen after many failed attempts at stardom Dolly and her uncle Billy signed contracts with Tree publishing as songwriters. Followed by a demo record with Mercury records that led to a few songs that got airplay as well as the homemade records Dolly had done before. The association between Mercury, Tree and Dolly did not last long as the public did not like Dolly’s songs. In 1964 Dolly Parton graduated high school.
After leaving Porter Wagoner Dolly was in need of change. This prompted her to start a family band called Traveling Family Band. Feeling that she had made a huge mistake working with family Dolly disbanded the band. Richard Dennison who still performs with Dolly, married her baby sister Rachel. Dolly has never had any children of her own. Dolly feels like her brothers and sisters are her children and their kids her grand kids.
One of her big ventures was her TV show “Dolly”. It was a variety type show where she would interview people. The TV show did not last very long but Dolly became very interested in doing television.
The next years passed like a whirlwind in Dolly Parton’s life. In 1980 Parton landed a role in the motion picture 9 to 5 with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda. She even had an Oscar-nomination for her performance in the 1980 hit. In 1982 Dolly played the role of Miss Mona in the movie Best Little Whorehouse in Texas with Burt Reynolds. Other performances included Sylvester Stallone's Rhinestone in 1984, Steel Magnolias, and the made-for-TV melodrama, Wild Texas Wind.
In the early '80s, Dolly Parton had 12 hits top the charts, but by the middle of the decade Parton had put recording and touring on hold to pursue her business interests with the multi-million dollar media empire, Dolly Parton Enterprises. In 1986 the corporation opened the theme park, Dollywood, in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. The following year, Parton had a short-lived television variety show, "Dolly," on ABC.
Dollywood is a theme park located in the Smoky Mountains. The idea was to give back to her community. The area was depressed and jobs were needed this was a help. Part of this organization is the Dollywood foundation - Parton contined her motion picture career and even published her autobiography, My Life And Other Unfinished Business. Her latest, the eclectic effort Little Sparrow, came out in 2001.
Dolly Parton has a sparkle; she is multi talented she is a songwriter, and singer. She plays guitar, banjo, piano, harpsichord, drums and harmonica. She has big hair, wears plenty of makeup, and dresses very flashy. There is another side to Dolly she is deep and thoughtfull she has taken her life and made a difference, she took a depressed area in the east Smoky mountains and gave them jobs and a future.Dolly Parton is a great example of how people should be and how we should treat eachother.
The next day Dolly packed up her belongings into three grocery bags and left for Nashville. Dolly Parton was 18 she had an apartment but had very little money. She used to walk the halls of hotels for room service trays that had half eaten food; she even used to steal bites of food in grocery stores. She lived in cellars, tiny trailers and anything that was cheap. One day while washing clothes in a launder mat she met her would be husband Carl Dean. A while later May 30 1966 Dolly Parton and Carl Dean got married. 
During this time Columbine Publishing, and Monument Records signed Dolly Parton and she was working on the Ralph Emery show. Her first song titled “Dumb Blonde” was an instant top ten hit.
Porter Wagoner approached Dolly Parton to replace his female singer Norma Jean Beasler. Dolly Parton had many great times during these years and wrote a lot of fabulous songs. She signed to RCA, and the duo had many country hits, including "Just Someone I Used to Know" in 1969 and "Daddy Was an Old Time Preacher Man" in 1970. While with Wagoner, she charted over a dozen solo country & western hits, including "Joshua" #1 in 1970. At this point Dolly was pretty much a household name around the world. This was during a time when the country music scene was completely dominated by men, Dolly helped to open the door for female singers. After seven years of work with Porter Wagoner she mustered up her courage and left the Porter Wagoner show. We are sad to report that Avie Lee Parton passed away December 5th, 2003 Our prayers go out to the enitre Parton Family!!!
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