Dolly Parton

Sevier County

Dolly Rebecca Parton was born on 19 January 1946 in a one-room cabin on the Little Pigeon River in Sevier County, Tennessee, the fourth of twelve children of Avie Lee and Robert Lee Parton. She wrote her first song at five, sang in her grandfather's Pentecostal church from the age of six, and was on local radio by nine and local television by ten. At thirteen she recorded Puppy Love for the Goldband label, and Johnny Cash introduced her at the Grand Ole Opry. Her uncle Bill Owens was her early writing partner.

She moved to Nashville the day after she finished high school in 1964, and that year met Carl Dean, whom she married in 1966. Monument signed her in 1965.

Porter Wagoner

In 1967 she joined The Porter Wagoner Show, signed to RCA Victor and released her debut album, Hello, I'm Dolly. With Wagoner she had a run of Top 10 duets, and Joshua (1971) gave her a first solo number one. In 1969, on his tour bus, she wrote Coat of Many Colors, the story of the patchwork coat her mother made her. It named the album of 1971, one of three she released that year, which AllMusic said announced her as a major talent in her own right.

In 1972 she wrote Jolene and I Will Always Love You on the same day, which she called a good writing day. Jolene topped the country chart in February 1974, and that year she left Wagoner's show.

Crossover

With Sandy Gallin as her manager from 1976, she turned toward pop. Here You Come Again (1977) was her first million-seller, and the title song of the film 9 to 5 went to number one on the country, pop and adult contemporary charts. Films followed, among them The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and Steel Magnolias. RCA let her contract lapse in 1986, and at Columbia she made Trio (1987) with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt. In 1992 Whitney Houston turned I Will Always Love You into a worldwide hit. In 1995 she founded the Imagination Library, in honor of her father, who could not read or write. It mails a book a month to enrolled children until they start school.

Blue mountain music

In 1999 she entered the Country Music Hall of Fame, and The Grass Is Blue, the first of her bluegrass albums for Sugar Hill, won a Grammy. Little Sparrow followed in January 2001, dedicated to her late father, and Halos & Horns closed the run in 2002. She called the sound blue mountain music. Its title song opened her Austin City Limits debut. After her mother died in 2003, she said she could not sing Coat of Many Colors without crying for months.

She started her own label, Dolly Records, in 2007. Blue Smoke (2014) was her first Top 10 album, and that June she played the Legends slot at Glastonbury to a crowd Emily Eavis called the largest she had seen at the farm.

Last years

Her book Songteller: My Life in Lyrics came out in 2020. In 2022 she entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, having first declined because she felt it belonged to rock musicians. Brandi Carlile and Pink sang Coat of Many Colors at the ceremony. Rockstar (2023) reached number three, her highest solo album. Carl Dean died in March 2025, and she released If You Hadn't Been There days later. For her eightieth birthday in January 2026 she released Light of a Clear Blue Morning.

She died in Nashville on 25 August 2026, aged 80, and was entombed beside her husband. The Empire State Building and the Willis Tower were lit pink. By the count on Wikipedia she made 49 studio albums and had 25 country number ones, and on setlist.fm Coat of Many Colors is her most-played song.