Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton met Carl Dean outside a laundromat in Nashville on her first day in the city in 1964. They married on May 30, 1966, and remained together until Dean’s death in 2025. Dean operated an asphalt-paving business and maintained a low public profile, while Parton described him as an important influence in her life and career.

Parton grew up as the fourth of twelve children in Appalachia. Her mother, Avie Lee Parton, taught her church music and traditional ballads, and several of her siblings became involved in music. Her uncle Bill Owens encouraged her early musical efforts and bought her a guitar.

Parton’s childhood in the Great Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee shaped both her ambitions and her songwriting. She drew on memories of poverty, family, faith, and Appalachian traditions in songs such as “Coat of Many Colors” and “My Tennessee Mountain Home.” “Coat of Many Colors” recounts the humiliation she experienced when classmates mocked a homemade patchwork coat.

By age ten, Parton had appeared on a television variety show in Knoxville. She made her first guest appearance on the Grand Ole Opry at thirteen in 1959 and recorded early singles for small labels. After graduating from high school in 1964, she moved to Nashville to pursue music professionally.

In 1967, Porter Wagoner hired Parton for The Porter Wagoner Show. Their television appearances, touring, and recordings for RCA Records brought her national recognition. She also recorded as a solo artist, and her songwriting gained attention when songs she wrote with Bill Owens became Top Ten hits for Bill Phillips.

Parton’s first solo number-one country hit was “Joshua” in 1970. In 1974, “Jolene,” “Love Is Like a Butterfly,” and “I Will Always Love You” all reached the top of the country chart. “I Will Always Love You” expressed her farewell to Porter Wagoner when she left his television show, and Wagoner continued producing some of her recordings under their contractual arrangement.

After separating professionally from Wagoner, Parton expanded into pop music without abandoning her country identity. Her 1977 album Here You Come Again earned her a Grammy Award, and she was named the Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year in 1978. Her song “9 to 5,” from the 1980 film of the same name, became her first number-one hit on the Billboard pop chart and earned her an Academy Award nomination.

Parton returned strongly to tradition-minded music in the late 1990s with critically acclaimed bluegrass albums. The Grass Is Blue won the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album and was named Album of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association. She also recorded Trio with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris, and later worked with Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette on Honky Tonk Angels.

Parton made her film debut in 9 to 5 (1980), starring with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. She followed it with roles in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), Rhinestone (1984), and Steel Magnolias (1989). Her performance in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas included a revival of “I Will Always Love You,” which Whitney Houston later recorded for The Bodyguard.

Her screen and production work continued through television films, feature films, and series. She wrote the music and lyrics for the Broadway musical adaptation of 9 to 5, which earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Original Score. She produced and appeared in Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors (2015), served as executive producer of Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings (2019), and produced and portrayed an angel in Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square (2020), which won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie.

Parton published her autobiography, Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business, in 1994. She later co-wrote Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics with Robert K. Oermann and the thriller Run, Rose, Run with James Patterson, alongside a companion album.

Parton opened Dollywood in 1986 in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. The theme park emphasizes Appalachian traditions and became one of the region’s major tourist attractions. She later established the Dollywood Foundation, which supports educational and community projects.

The foundation launched the Imagination Library in 1995 to promote children’s literacy. Inspired in part by her father’s inability to read and write, Parton began by providing free books to young children in her home county. The program later expanded across the United States and into other countries, distributing hundreds of millions of books.

Parton has also supported the Dolly Parton Center for Women’s Services in Sevierville and helped fund Moderna vaccine research through a $1 million donation to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2020.

Parton was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001. She received the Library of Congress Living Legend Award in 2004, the National Medal of Arts in 2005, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2006. The Recording Academy presented her with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011.

Her recording “Coat of Many Colors” was added to the National Recording Registry in 2011. Parton was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022 after initially asking to be removed from consideration because she did not view herself as a rock performer. Her career has connected country music, pop, film, television, business, and philanthropy.