In Dolly Parton’s rural Appalachian home, life was as “peaceful as a baby’s sigh.”
Read more Lil Nas X Shares Update After Rehab as He Marks ‘10,000 Days Alive’
She would sing this line in one of her famous songs, “My Tennessee Mountain Home.” Parton’s upbringing was hard, but through her 80 years, she always revered it and emphasized the importance of family. In many ways, she treated the whole world like her family.
To that family’s dismay, Dolly Rebecca Parton, the “Queen of Country,” died Tuesday. Her nephew and head of security Bryan Seaver announced the news in a social media video that amassed millions of views in just a matter of minutes.
“By her example, we believed that anything was possible,” Seaver said in the video. “She never saw a door she couldn’t open, and the doors she opened made and changed history.”
Parton was born on Jan. 19, 1946, in a one-room cabin near the Little Pigeon River in East Tennessee. Parton, the fourth of 12 children, grew up in poverty in rural Appalachia. Growing up, she loved to sing and play music, for which she credits her mother. Her father worked to support their large family, and she attributed her hard work ethic and business smarts to him.
Parton graduated from Sevier County High School in Sevierville in 1964 — the first in her family to earn a high school diploma.
Read more Krispy Kreme brings back fan-favorite doughnut. Here’s when to get it
Then the very next day, she moved to Nashville to become a star.
In a career that spanned 60 years, Parton recorded 50 studio albums, won 11 Grammy Awards, and became one of the best-selling music artists of all time. She spent decades navigating the music and entertainment industry; starring in films and television programs; transcending genres of country, rock & roll and pop; and dazzling the masses with her talents, colorful outfits and fiercely kind spirit.
And through it all, she never forgot her Appalachian roots. Some of her most famous songs like “My Tennessee Mountain Home” pay homage to her beautifully gritty upbringing in the Great Smoky Mountains. “I was rich as I could be,” she would sing in “The Coat of Many Colors.”
Along with accomplishing a legendary musical career, Parton was a lifelong giver. In 1986, she opened her theme park, Dollywood, in Sevierville to drive tourism that would help support the people in her hometown.
But perhaps the initiative she was most proud of was her Imagination Library: a book gifting program that mails free books to children from birth to age five. 2026 marks 31 years of the program.
Dolly Parton once said “it’s hard to be a diamond in a rhinestone world.” As the nation mourns this true diamond, take a stroll through her legendary life through the photo gallery below.
Read more UNC Tar Heels men’s basketball transfer ineligible after court ruling