https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/25/entertainment/dolly-parton-de...
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/25/arts/music/dolly-parton-d..., https://archive.ph/w4vsE
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/music/music-news/dolly-par...
mikestew10 hours ago
I’ve never been much of a country music fan, but I’ve always been a Dolly fan. Great songwriter, philanthropist, and seemed like a genuinely nice person. RIP, Dolly, you were one of the greats.
jihadjihad10 hours ago
Her vocals were exceptional, too. One of my favorite videos I've randomly come across on YouTube is "Jolene" slowed down to 33 RPM [0]. The comments are hilarious as well, but the clarity of her vocals and the vibrato that carries through to a slower tempo is really something special to hear.
PaulHoule10 hours ago
She's one of those crossover performers, such as Kenny Rogers and Taylor Swift who escape Country music as a genre and get mass appeal. Whenever I comment about a Dolly Parton song playing in a public place I hear things like "She's a national treasure!"
kevin_thibedeau9 hours ago
Rogers crossed over into country.
mikestew9 hours ago
My ex-wife was a big Kenny "The Country Version" Rogers fan. I chuckle to myself every time I watch The Big Lebowski and hear Rogers singing his psychedelic "Just Checked In" and wonder what the ex would think of his origins.
jimmySixDOF9 hours ago
Her cover of Stairway to Heaven is definitely crossover at its best
tomcam7 hours ago
Oh. You weren't kidding! It's good. They avoid all the traps, like not trying to outdo Jimmy Page's guitar solo.
pseudosavant5 hours ago
Definitely my favorite version of that song!
bluesounddirect7 hours ago
Then you will love "The chipmunks at 16 speed"
alyandon6 hours ago
For a second I misread that as "The chipmunks at 16X speed" and was seriously confused.
bluesounddirect5 hours ago
I know what you mean, 16rpm makes more sense .
chimbles7 hours ago
Sometime she changed the RPMs herself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJEpoLeISCo
sollewitt7 hours ago
The guitar is also immaculate slowed down and that was her too. I always thought it was some hotshot Nashville session musician. One of the best guitar licks of all time.
Joeboy7 hours ago
She was certainly a fine guitarist, but Wikipedia says you were right first time, it was a session player called Chip Young.
jihadjihad4 hours ago
Dolly wrote the lick herself, and when she was in the studio with the session players, they wanted her to show them how to play it [0].
She ended up having Chip Young lay it down on the record since her long fingernails made it difficult to nail consistently. This is also why if you watch videos of her playing guitar she plays in open tunings [1].
0: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/oct/31/dolly-parton-r...
1: https://www.guitarworld.com/features/how-does-dolly-parton-p...
jerf3 hours ago
I still carry the rather 20th century idea that a performer of almost any kind also ought to have some sort of other talent in addition to their main one. The versatility of that sort of thing is one of the things that should separate a pro from the rest. I generally count "professional level musician" on more than one instrument as fulfilling that contract... perhaps one of the easier of the options, but it still carries that versatility advantage. Another example that I'm quite fond of is famous comedian Steve Martin performing Dueling Banjos with Kermit the Frog. The combo of two professional entertainers playing off of each other combined with the music skills creates the opportunity for a creative routine.
shevy-java8 hours ago
Agreed. The climbing voice in Jolene was my favourite of her vocal range. She was a pretty good singer too; not as good as e. g. Ariana Grande in her own prime (before chasing bulimia) but quite good nonetheless.
markdown7 hours ago
Made famous by the show The Blacklist
slim5 hours ago
first time I hear that song and to my ear, the song was recorded at that speed, then sped up in production.
4d4m6 hours ago
She was a loving wife to her husband and a great entrepreneur in addition to being a prolific artist. It's hard to find someone so well rounded at so many things before even adding that most of the jobs she created were/are considered positive contributions to society, evenly spread between entertainment, hospitality, foodservice, and adjacent industries. I think I heard she was directly responsible for about 20k total jobs which is INSANE.
What a positive legacy to leave - good example for others.
tombert9 hours ago
Same.
I don't really like country music, but Dolly always seemed somewhat down-to-earth and pretty decent.
CGMthrowaway9 hours ago
Thankfully we have Whitney Houston, Tina Turner, the White Stripes, etc for you
EugeneOZ2 hours ago
Also not a fan of country/folk, but today I learned about her special albums trilogy: The Grass Is Blue, Little Sparrow, and Halos & Horns. Quite different music!
Some songs I added to my playlist :)
johnnyanmac8 hours ago
I wouldn't ever say I was a fan per se. But she was always the go-to example of "this is what billionaires should be doing with their money". So I respected the hell out of her.
Of course, she also proves the very point of there being no ethical billionaire, being "only" worth some 450 million instead. Likely because she gave so much of her wealth back to her communities instead. RIP Dolly, indeed.
4d4m4 hours ago
Completely agree johnnuanmac. Seems like a role model for being a good person while maintaining extreme goals and working toward the impossible.
Aboutplants10 hours ago
“Dolly Parton's Imagination Library has gifted over 318 million free books to children worldwide since its inception”
Amazing contributions to many aspects of life
behat9 hours ago
Daughter loves getting these in the mail, and this paragraph is absolutely right!
>> That year, Parton explained that as well as improving child literacy, “it’s the fact they get recognised. They get this little book with their little name on it in the mail, and they feel special. They start taking pride in themselves, and they know that somebody out there is thinking of [them].”
nkoren8 hours ago
I'm in a borough of London, and did a bit of a double-take when they told me that Dolly Parton would be sending my daughter a book every month. But indeed she did, and it had exactly that effect, and now she's an absolutely avid reader.
Thank you, Dolly. That meant a lot to us, and millions upon millions of other people too.
michaelsbradley9 hours ago
My son loves them too!
haney10 hours ago
As a kid growing up in Tennessee I was the beneficiary of several of her reading programs. They really helped to foster a sense of curiosity and wonder that live with me to this day. Dolly was a real one, she'll definitely be missed.
someothherguyy5 hours ago
How much do you remember these books your family was gifted before you were five years old? I thought it was more of a program to increase literacy. Personally, I remember books from when I was pre-kindergarten, but I don't typically think of them as "fostering a sense of curiosity and wonder", though, ultimately, I guess they did.
I just think it is an interesting topic in the framing of content policing and what not, it would be interesting to know what you took from the program.
haney3 hours ago
She also had a program that gave a free book to elementary school kids every year (as a part of the local book fair). The first technical book I ever owned was a very basic intro to html that I received as a part of that program.
kstrauser2 hours ago
Reading this made me choke up. That’s beautiful.
duck10 hours ago
Yeah, it is such an amazing program that was just executed in the right way. She didn't see it hit the billion books like she wanted to in her lifetime, but I'm sure they will get there. I would love to know other examples of philanthropy like that are similar in impact?
[1] https://imaginationlibrary.com/ [2] https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/03/01/589912466/dolly-p...
gip9 hours ago
My toddler gets a book a month in the mail from Dolly's Imagination Library and we keep reading some almost every day. She's made an impact in so many families <3
someothherguyy5 hours ago
Interesting program, seems mostly positive, some dissent
https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/concern/dissertations/mw22vh301
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02702711.2019.16...
https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/rrq.7010...
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Judith-Butler/publicati...
kstrauser2 hours ago
I think any dissent has to be from the kind of person who just has to find something wrong with everything. I cannot imagine a legitimate criticism of her program to give free books to every kid.
notyourwork9 hours ago
I agree but I came across Dolly Parton syrup in the grocery store once. Had to say for all the good, that felt a bit odd, strange and out of place with Dolly’s character.
syntheticnature8 hours ago
Huh, looks she has an entire food line. Wonder if this is planned to be an income stream for some of her charities, similar to Newman's Own.
[deleted]9 hours agocollapsed
danans7 hours ago
To me, apart from her amazing music and philanthropy, what Dolly Parton represents is something that was (emphasis on past tense) at one time truly exceptional about the United States - that someone from a very humble background (poverty in East TN) could have a tremendous impact on the culture of the world - the other example in entertainment being Michael Jackson (from Gary IN).
Admittedly the US music industry was among the few where this phenomenon happened, although definitionally very few reach pop stardom.
In contrast, much of the world exports only its "elite culture", not the culture of common people.
dan-robertson7 hours ago
Don’t you still see this with hip-hop to some extent?
I also think a lot of the difference is that a much smaller percentage of the population grows up as poor as she did. A person from a similar wealth/income percentile today mightn’t seem to have had such a difficult start.
Obviously lots of other things are different today – it’s easier than ever to access a wide variety of music but that’s not what people tend to do (iirc); there’s less money to be made selling music; there’s perhaps less interest in more ‘rural’ genres of music.
danans5 hours ago
> Don’t you still see this with hip-hop to some extent?
To some extent yes, but I suspect that is declining also as the genre becomes corporatized.
shermantanktop5 hours ago
becomes? i think that happened like 15 years ago...
danans4 hours ago
Sure, I was being charitable
golemiprague5 hours ago
[dead]
whimsicalism7 hours ago
Your contention is what, that now this is no longer possible or less likely?
danans5 hours ago
Less likely, for many reasons - including the more crowded marketplace for talent, but also a culture that is more corporation generated over time.
whimsicalism5 hours ago
I disagree strongly, I think we are even better at identifying talent in the margins today and the leaps are potentially larger.
oersted3 hours ago
> more crowded marketplace for talent
That is “the people” isn’t it? It is the consequence of democratization and openness.
I am not sure if superstars were good representatives of what most people wanted. Often, I am sorry to say, it was the lowest common denominator. Now common people can actually enter the arena and represent their corner of the population.
But, almost by definition, if you are part of “the people”, you don’t get to stand out much.
VLM6 hours ago
See also Britney Spears, who's mom ran a small daycare. Taylor Swift's an in between story, middle class financial services parents, hard to say if they were paycheck to paycheck or not...
Its not necessarily the best thing that big companies have a business model of taking advantage of poor, or relatively poorer, people, particularly attractive young women. See our global Epstein class and global Weinstein class.
b85 hours ago
Taylor Swift's parents spent 1 Mil+ on her career. I wouldn't call that middle class.
hackernud3s4 hours ago
I might give it to them still if they were fully leveraged.
danans5 hours ago
> Its not necessarily the best thing that big companies have a business model of taking advantage of poor, or relatively poorer, people, particularly attractive young women. See our global Epstein class and global Weinstein class.
I agree. But are those kinds of abuse a requirement of a system that raises the voices of poorer people, or is it that we have permitted them?
I don't know if Taylor Swift endured similar hardship in her rise, but if she didn't as other replies have suggested, she's an example of how the system should treat those who are less privileged than she was.
uncivilized6 hours ago
Calling Swift middle class and that they were possibly paycheck to paycheck is laughable.
Her father had a huge role to play in her success with his business deals and would largely be considered upper middle class if not higher. If anything, Taylor’s story reinforces the idea that families with wealth offer easier paths in life for their children.
alexpotato6 hours ago
IIRC he worked for a large financial services company (Merrill Lynch?) and was able to transfer to the Nashville office so that Taylor could be closer to the music scene.
Upvoter33an hour ago
No offense, but "the idea that families with wealth offer easier paths in life for their children" - like isn't this obviously the case?
The amazing thing about America is that there are paths for those not as wealthy, but of course they are harder, as much as we might not want them to be... no?
mattsolle10 hours ago
If anyone hasn't listened to "Dolly Parton's America" (https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/dolly-partons-america), I highly recommend it.
Does a great job interviewing Dolly and discussing with her (and those two are around her) who she is, her life events, her thoughts on life. I knew people loved Dolly Parton before I listened but didn't really know why and the podcast helped me understand a bit more of it. It features a LOT of one-on-one time with Dolly in a way that I don't often find docu-series do. It's fantastic!
Tangurena28 hours ago
My favorite Dolly story that she sometimes tells in talk shows was when she heard about a Dolly Parton Look Alike contest and entered it. She came in second place.
jimt123410 hours ago
One minor fact about Dolly I've always found fascinating is that she was married to the same dude for almost 60 years, until he passed away recently. I mean, being as famous as she was as an entertainer - that just seems like an extreme anomaly.
pibakeran hour ago
Do we have actual data on whether or not celebrities have more volatile relationships?
My gut feeling says they may very well be. But I feel it could also just be the media being bloodthirsty towards celebrity drama skewing our perception of it.
13hours9 hours ago
I guess the fact that I'm not mildy surprised that people can be married for 60 years says something about how different our cultures are? Even though we're on HN discussing so many other things we have in common.
asveikau6 hours ago
I think money, fame, celebrity status, etc. often creates pressures on the relationship.
Kind of like how it sometimes pushes people into drug addictions. That's a stereotype that we've all heard about since kids, but it wasn't until relatively recently that I thought about it seriously that it occurred to me that a touring celebrity musician's life can be stressful and the drugs can be (or start out as) a pressure valve release. I think that part of it clicked to me when I heard a musician being interviewed about it, I forget which. Maybe it was a Beatle talking about their early amphetamine days.
duderific6 hours ago
Re the drug addictions - another thing to note about touring musicians is that there's a lot of downtime. New cities every day, not much to do until your show in the evening. Pretty easy to slip into unhealthy habits.
jimt12346 hours ago
I had a friend in the mid-90s that was in a mildly successful band. They did a few national tours as opener for bands like The Red Hot Chili Peppers. I met up with him once while he was out on tour. I was thinking he was living his best life, like he was gonna brag about the lifestyle. Just the opposite. He hated touring, said it was very stressful, and that he just wanted to eat a home-cooked meal and sleep in the same bed more than two nights in a row. And yes, he said industry folks were constantly pushing free drugs.
Erem9 hours ago
Divorce is rampant among celebrities in the USA. Maybe not worldwide?
johnnyanmac8 hours ago
It's not unheard of. But I guess it's a mix of several small factors:
1. divorce rates have been rising for decades.
2. 60 years is a very long time, and that means Dolly would have had to marry around 18-20. Marrying that young these days for my generation very much is an anomaly, and people are putting off marriage more and more these days.
3. Celebrity culture in particular has a much more tumultuous relationship. In a number of cases, marriage may simply be another influential tool to manage fame and wealth rather than an act of love and caring.
kranke15510 hours ago
Paul Newman I think. Same thing. He was also married to the same person for decades.
tclancy9 hours ago
Yeah and just like Dolly, someone we need more of.
wging9 hours ago
Her husband was Carl Dean.
kranke1559 hours ago
I meant to say Paul Newman was similarly married for decades to the same person.
mc329 hours ago
De mortis nil nisi bonum, as they say.
socalgal24 hours ago
Except for the part where they try to inject their woke agenda into it by trying to suggest Jolene is a lesbian song. Nothing wrong with LGBTQIA+ but that part was super cringe as it was clear they were inserting their own adgenda rather than just interviewing Dolly Parton
delichon10 hours ago
I put her in my pantheon with Johnny Cash. Turns out Cash introduced her on her Grand Ole Opry debut in 1959, when she was 13. She killed it. Parton said later she was best friends with Johnny and June.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcfyzJW-BA4
I don't think I've ever seen the interwebs talking about one thing as much as right now.
dsiegel22755 hours ago
As a performer, sure.
But Dolly was 1000x the songwriter that Johnny Cash was.
kstrauser2 hours ago
Let’s not get carried away. Dolly was brilliant, inarguably. But no one is 1000x the songwriter of Johnny Freaking Cash, who was also estimated to have written over 1,000 songs for himself and for others.
Let’s just agree that they’re both S-tier writers.
antonymoose5 hours ago
I’m no artist so I’m left to ask - how exactly is that metric determined?
shadowgovt9 hours ago
When Michael Jackson died, reaction online was so sudden it made Google search backend stumble... They didn't have a solution to auto-hotspot-protect half the planet searching his name suddenly.
I'll be interested to see if the mitigations hold today.
stevoski7 hours ago
A fun YouTube video of Dolly Parton in an Irish pub: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqdKrv1Vh-g
“Dolly Parton makes an impromptu appearance at Páidí Ó Sé’s pub in Dún Chaoin, Co. Kerry and takes to the stage to entertain the locals.
While on holiday in Kerry, singer Dolly Parton paid a visit to former Kerry footballer Páidí Ó Sé’s pub, where she performs her song ‘Coat of Many Colours’ accompanied by musicians Steve Cooney and Seamus Begley.
Dolly signs off at the end of her performance,
Thank you very much and welcome to Dinglewood
This episode of Cursaí was broadcast on 1 October 1990.”
mmmm27 hours ago
Very cool video and respect to the guitar player for gracefully handling a once in a lifetime opportunity.
biorach6 hours ago
That's Steve Cooney. It was Dolly got the one in a lifetime opportunity.
cm20127 hours ago
Amazing share! What a performer. What a life.
curuinor10 hours ago
I am from the wrong continent to be inculcated in country music from an early age, but I read books distributed from her program every week to the niece. So that's probably her more durable contribution to society, I think.
autoexec10 hours ago
Something tells me that the songs and films will outlast the books program, but hopefully it's making a difference in the lives of kids. There's no telling how far reaching that can end up being.
gkoberger10 hours ago
Well, as long as the songs and films continue to make her estate money, I imagine she planned to continue sending out books.
cheeze10 hours ago
On the flipside, how many individual lives have been changed by the books provided to families for free? Impossible to quantify but I'd argue extremely important.
em3rgent0rdr9 hours ago
> "wrong continent to be inculcated in country music"
A humorous response to whenever someone says "country music" is: "Which country?"
genericone10 hours ago
[flagged]
curuinor10 hours ago
You cannot separate that ideology (like any ideology) from the practitioners, and the biggest practitioner was unquestionably Sam Bankman-Fried. I'm not a fan.
buellerbueller10 hours ago
Ridiculous, because EA says the ends justify the means, whereas Ms. Parton demonstrated the importance of the ends and the means.
The public will not mourn any EA the way that Dolly is being mourned.
It is your silly assertion that is what is entirely fucked up about techbros and politics today.
jrflowers9 hours ago
Lmao “You like nice things happening. You must be a fan of my weird techbro scam cult, that invented doing nice things”
malfist7 hours ago
There's nothing techbros culture can't reinvint, claim as their own, and charge a subscription for it
[deleted]9 hours agocollapsed
onlypassingthru9 hours ago
The US's only secular saint. Her memorial service will need to be held in a football stadium to handle the number of people who want to pay their last respects.
kylemaxwell8 hours ago
At least, since Fred Rogers died.
jibcage8 hours ago
To be fair Fred Rogers was a minister, but I would agree that his message to kids was mostly secular.
onlypassingthru6 hours ago
Fred was a very respected man, but Dolly is also loved. The grief for many is real and most never even met her.
hackernud3s4 hours ago
I feel like conservatives must have a problem with Fred. MAGA would have definitely cancelled his funding.
chasd009 hours ago
yeah she's a treasure to pretty much everyone.
welcome_dragon7 hours ago
No I'm guessing that she arranged for a small personal ceremony only - insisting on that would be in line with her character.
VLM6 hours ago
Dollywood can hold more people than a football stadium. Probably will.
Its a nice theme park. She bought it because she thought it would be cool to have a really awesome theme park in TN. She was both correct and successful. It's pretty cool.
lightedman8 hours ago
"Her memorial service will need to be held in a football stadium to handle the number of people who want to pay their last respects"
Way bigger. Dolly was beloved by millions, if not billions of people worldwide.
You'd need an area the size of Tennessee itself for the memorial service.
hermitcrab8 hours ago
Random fact, Dolly the cloned sheep was named after Dolly Parton:
"Dolly is derived from a mammary gland cell and we couldn't think of a more impressive pair of glands than Dolly Parton's."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_(sheep)
In the end I think her generosity outshone her other famous attributes.
partyficialan hour ago
The UK office's (Ricky Gervais) final words in the last episode:
"and some say she's just a big pair of tits"
triceratops7 hours ago
The past really is a foreign country.
krupan7 hours ago
When I was in elementary school Dolly Parton boob jokes made the rounds. I think we've all adjusted our view of her as a person since those days
triceratops6 hours ago
There are different standards expected of schoolboys compared to respected scientists announcing historic breakthroughs.
bigiainan hour ago
Within her family friendly choice of language, she wasn't shy of making jokes about her own appearance:
“I make jokes about it, but it's the truth that I kind of patterned my look after the town tramp. I didn't know what she was, just this woman who was blond and piled her hair up, wore high heels and tight skirts, and, boy, she was the prettiest thing I'd ever seen. Momma used to say, "Aw, she's just trash," and I thought, That's what I want to be when I grow up. Trash.”
and:
"It costs a lot of money to look this cheap"
charlieflowers9 hours ago
I still remember how hard I was struck by the scene in The Orville, where someone from another planet hears a Dolly Parton song playing and asks who it is. He goes on to say, "She speaks with the might of a hundred soldiers!"
She did. She is one of our species' great poets.
lemonberry9 hours ago
That was a really great cameo.
steveBK12310 hours ago
She made money doing what she loved, and gave a huge amount of it away to help others. Can't ask for better than that, she will be missed.
cjboco10 hours ago
What an amazing woman and person in general.
I wish other celebrities did as much as her. Her Imagination Library (https://imaginationlibrary.com) is just one example of her giving back to the community.
blueshoe9 hours ago
The more & More I learned about her over the years, It felt like she just never seamed to give into the system and always found a way to keep give back to the world that corrupts so many.
dylan60410 hours ago
My mother was a die hard Dolly fan. We even visited Dollywood when I was a kid. One of her favorite movies was with Dolly and Sylvester Stallone called Rhinestone. She watched it repeatedly, and there are quotes from it that are taking up precious space in the ol' memory banks.
If you've never heard the 45 of Jolene played at 33, give it a listen.
cscharenberg9 hours ago
Rhinestone! I just watched for first time the other day. I had made my partner watch Rocky to see a different side of Stallone, and she is a huge Dolly Parton fan.
Rhinestone was hilarious and great to watch just because Stallone and Parton were having _so much fun_ together. No sense of sexual attraction, just having a damn great time having fun. Could not help but enjoy that, separate from it genuinely being a fun movie.
[deleted]10 hours agocollapsed
chistev10 hours ago
We used to play Coat of Many Colors a lot in my house when I was a kid.
My coat of many colors
That my mama made for me
Made only from rags
But I wore it so proudly
Although we had no money
Well, I was rich as I could be
In my coat of many colors
My mama made for me
mkhpalm10 hours ago
Sierra Ferrell does a pretty good rendition of that. Its actually nice to know that Dolly got to hear/see/meet Sierra.. One of a few who might be able to haul a chunk of Dolly's influence forward.
zabzonk9 hours ago
> Sierra Ferrell does a pretty good rendition of that.
Emmylou Harris does a great one also.
z3ugma8 hours ago
Brandi Carlile and I'm With Her just covered this at their stadium concert in Madison, WI last night. Eerie.
jawilson27 hours ago
TBF, there are probably 100s of Dolly covers being done nightly. I just played Do I Ever Cross Your Mind a few nights ago with my bar band.
plandis8 hours ago
Outside of her impact on the music industry she also had an outsized impact on families with young children.
She started a charity called Imagination Library [1] that sends free monthly books to children under six in the US, Canada and even expanded to the UK, Australia, and the Republic of Ireland. I will always be grateful for this.
losvedir10 hours ago
RIP. We went to Dollywood last year and I highly recommend it! It was a fun, family-friendly park, and one of the things I was impressed by was how helpful and happy to be there all the workers were. Seemed like a bunch of friendly veterans who took our tickets and let us in.
baggachipz9 hours ago
And it's so clean! Makes The Magic Kingdom look like a toxic waste dump. Also has great rides. Can't recommend Dollywood enough.
4d4m6 hours ago
More focus on the ride theming makes it a standout park in the USA. Also no students being exploited as interns for work programs which is a nice change.
nunez7 hours ago
Dolly Parton's Stampede is a good time as well. Don't read too much into it if you go lol
ahartmetz9 hours ago
Feynman was apparently a fan, too. His name for quarks was "partons". She just played the dumb showbiz blonde, or as she said "it takes a lot of money to look this cheap". Others in this discussion have more to say about this, but - she was obviously a super nice and thoughtful person.
Here's my favorite track of hers, Todd Terje mix of "Jolene": https://youtu.be/Xkl36pu8aLY
cbfrench8 hours ago
I grew up in East TN, and this feels like the death of Queen Elizabeth, Mother Teresa, and your favorite fun aunt all rolled up into one. Except no one had a bad word to say about Dolly. She was beloved around the world, but she was an institution back home.
esseph6 hours ago
I grew up in Kentucky, so Dolly still felt like a sweet distant aunt that nobody ever had a harsh word about. Went to Dollywood several times as a kid.
My hope is that people will try an emulate her charity and compassion.
neom8 hours ago
Miley Cyrus is Dolly Parton's god daughter, Miley did a really phenomenal version of “Jolene” - probably my favourite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOwblaKmyVw - She also did a great version together with Dolly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RINEaGraHMc
slowin9 hours ago
9 to 5 is such a great song. Adding it as I don't see it linked here. Strong pro-worker message too! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbxUSsFXYo4
1-more7 hours ago
The movie is snare-drum-tight scriptwriting. Great flick.
peezd8 hours ago
the story of how she wrote this is fantastic.
samizdis8 hours ago
It's heartening to see tributes and obits in publications worldwide. All respectful, and genuinely bereft. One obit, though, stood out to me from the dozen or so I've read so far. It's this one [0] in the FT, which I think deserves a wider audience [1].
[0] https://www.ft.com/content/c57569fb-c1ee-476a-aa31-d402e2f3b...
tcbawo8 hours ago
Dolly Parton was an incredibly savvy business person, talented songwriter and performer, and an outstanding human being. One in a billion.
I will always remember her appearance on the Late Show with Steven Colbert where she moved him to tears with an a cappella song: https://youtu.be/R91VssUiGiY
bariswheel4 hours ago
She was a kind soul and I could sense she was extremely battle hardened, the perfect combo. A true philanthropist. For those who may not know, she originally wrote and sang Whitney Houston's biggest single 'I will always love you'
a2tech2 hours ago
She wrote that song and Jolene on the same day. Basically cemented her legacy and future with one afternoons worth of work.
triceratops9 hours ago
Dolly Parton's film production company Sandollar produced the 1992 movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer_(film...
d4mi3n10 hours ago
End of an era. She was a very active philanthropist and will be dearly missed for all the good she brought to the world.
CGMthrowaway9 hours ago
Shameless plug for the Dolly Parton Book Club, for which you can register your child (even not yet born) and they will send them a free age-appropriate book every month until they turn 5. https://imaginationlibrary.com/
babymetal3 hours ago
The only thing I have in common with Dolly Parton is living in the USA and I grew up seeing her as a big sister and the best of what we can be. I wish I had 1% of the love she carried with her. This news is much more difficult than I would have expected. I guess that might be specific to 70s and 80s kids.
sleet_spotter10 hours ago
If you are curious to know more about Dolly, I wholeheartedly recommend the podcast series “Dolly Parton’s America”. One of the best podcast series I’ve listened to and gave me so much respect for Dolly. The world is a little dimmer without her in it!
1970-01-0110 hours ago
m4639 hours ago
I was in awe of her books for kids program.
Simple, direct philanthropy that helps any/all kids:
otter-in-a-suit10 hours ago
Very sad to hear. Rest in peace.
I was at Dollywood a few weeks ago. I highly recommend a visit if you ever get the chance. She has a fantastic legacy in more ways than one.
kpmcc9 hours ago
If anyone wants to listen to an underrated Dolly track, my rec is Silver Dagger.
1PlayerOne10 hours ago
I'm going home, I'm going home...
Long As I Can See The Light: https://youtu.be/tMgyIUvz9ak?si=zZq0yHRHmGl7LsFB
Bluestein10 hours ago
You know how, sometimes, you downright think "that is impossible!", with certain people, when you hear of their death. And then, of course, you realize ...
This.-
TapamN8 hours ago
Fun fact: Dolly, the cloned sheep, was named after Dolly Parton. The sheep was cloned from a mammary gland cell, so...
InsideOutSanta10 hours ago
She always seemed so full of life, it's difficult to believe she's gone.
JKCalhoun9 hours ago
I originally had no idea Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" was a Dolly Parton cover.
computershit7 hours ago
Whitney's version gives you goosebumps; Dolly's original will make you cry.
ssttoo9 hours ago
And written the same day she wrote Jolene
divbzero9 hours ago
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has been gifting free books to kids from birth to age 5 for over three decades: https://imaginationlibrary.com/
mtweak7 hours ago
Her father couldn't read so she built a program that mails 3.5 million books to children every month.
That's an amazing contribution to literacy
DiBop10 hours ago
Wow. I knew she was close but still. She has always held her in a special place in my heart as I am sure so many else do. I hope there is a national day of mourning. And parades. She would've like parades
djray7 hours ago
Her playing at Glastonbury here in the UK only seems like the other day, but I just checked and it's been _12 years_! She played her most popular songs and the audience treated her like the star she was. What an incredible, talented, kind-hearted woman. An inspiration to so many for all the best reasons.
jMylesan hour ago
Others have mentioned Sierra Ferrel - she seems the obvious native wildlife in the gap in the ecosystem left by this passing.
And Sierra is a very sharp and kind human being from what I can tell. We've had the good fortune to hang out a few times at IBMA and once in Tennessee. She has always been very kind and curious with my son, and she seems to have a very inspired few of the future of the music "industry".
I don't know her super well, but she definitely runs in my circles of friends who are interested in a radical rethinking (for many of us, an abolitionist view) of IP. I have no idea her views in particular, but it's notable to see someone arise from that scene (at least as I perceive it) to such prominence.
I don't recall if I've spoken to her about IPFS - I think I actually have - but it's an interesting synchrony to have Dolly leave us (and for many of us, to institutionally turn to Sierra for inspiration) and for IPFS lose its primary maintaining org in the same day.
It's obvious that the long-term future of traditional music is as the lifeblood of peer-to-peer topologies and communities.
Here's Sierra summoning the energy of Dolly last Sept:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeV6-hTLe6U
I'm sure she'll do a generationally-relevant tribute in the next week or two, as will Billy Strings.
(Reminder: Both Billy and Sierra have released their entire catalog DRM-free: https://pickipedia.xyz/wiki/DRM-free)
arjie9 hours ago
In an odd coincidence, Jolene by Dolly Parton played on YouTube Music as I drove home with my daughter. When we got home, my wife told me Dolly Parton had died. I don't listen to much of her though I'm fond of this song, and we get the Imagination Library books. Seems like she was good person, and a great singer and songwriter.
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Mwntalhwalth10 hours ago
My daughter loves Dolly from her books and I love reading to her. What a win win, RIP Dolly you are a class act.
zabzonk6 hours ago
Somehow "USS Dolly Parton" has a bit of a ring to it for the next US warship after the "USS Dorie Miller".
dayyan10 hours ago
Amazing human who popularized the amazing Country Music. Listening to Country Music radio all day as respects.
stego-tech10 hours ago
Dolly was one of the unequivocal good ones. Damn girl, RIP.
DiBop10 hours ago
One of THE best humans to have ever graced this planet. I've never heard a single negative thing about her. I wish I believed in heaven.
jolt4210 hours ago
In regard to heaven, you don't need to believe for her - she believed.
jjtheblunt10 hours ago
in some sense, the collection of innumerable entirely positive memories effect one aspect of heaven for her, i believe.
Ned_Williams3 hours ago
Sad, but she was beloved and lived a great live. She was successful, but gave back a lot in her local community.
hermitcrab8 hours ago
Stars who were born into poverty sometimes struggle with being generous (Charlie Chaplin for example). But that certainly didn't seem to be an issue for Dolly. What a life.
alsetmusic9 hours ago
I found this remix music video strangely hypnotic when I happened across it.
chasd009 hours ago
My wife is at an eye appointment. I have no idea what to expect when she gets home. After Dolly's super bowl performance my wife (and her mother) were crying at just the thought of her passing away.
odyssey710 hours ago
Sad news - she was a treasure.
Jaauthor10 hours ago
I will be crying 9-5 today.
kzrdude10 hours ago
I guess this is why English Wikipedia was down. It's back up now.
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nunez7 hours ago
One of the most generous music artists to have lived. Dolly's legacy will greatly outlive her.
quaddoggy7 hours ago
The woman wrote Jolene. If that doesn’t get you to heaven then nothing will.
oliyoung6 hours ago
An icon, one of the best of us and a true one of one
syngrog66an hour ago
off-topic here
suoloordi8 hours ago
She was truly a gem. Beautiful inside and out. May she rest in peace.
spicymaki9 hours ago
We need more celebrities to step up like Dolly. You will be missed.
lenerdenator10 hours ago
I knew she had been sick recently but always assumed she'd bounce back.
We're worse off.
paulpauper10 hours ago
some people are really sick but it's not evident because they keep it concealed
lanstin9 hours ago
Also when you are 80 something can go from a bit of a cold to deadly dangerous real quick.
CalChris10 hours ago
I saw Dolly at Hardly Strictly in 2005. She was great.
GeekyBear10 hours ago
She was such an impressively kind person.
sikozu9 hours ago
Heartbreaking. Rest in peace Dolly.
swozey9 hours ago
She was, I believe, the largest or one of the largest private donors to the moderna covid vaccine
Here is her families statement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9govup-IG3c
divbzero9 hours ago
It was a $1 million donation to Vanderbilt in April 2020 to support three COVID research projects, including one related to the Moderna vaccine:
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/0...
swozey9 hours ago
Thank you
dabinat8 hours ago
It’s interesting that she never got any flak for it from conspiracy theorists. I guess they realized she was so beloved she was untouchable.
chasd004 hours ago
> I guess they realized she was so beloved she was untouchable
For real. If there is a heaven I’m sure the red carpet was rolled out for her.
rglover9 hours ago
RIP. One of the last real ones.
baba_vanga10 hours ago
RIP Dolly, she was a good one.
jimt12349 hours ago
I remember in the early-80s, maybe 5th grade, being taught fractions, specifically the "Dolly Parton fraction", where the numerator is larger than the denominator. I've got a feeling they don't teach that anymore.
andsoitis4 hours ago
Dolly was a force.
shevy-java8 hours ago
People suspected the health news in the last ~months before to be more serious than initially alleged to not be serious at all. Now they were confirmed.
Of all her songs I think Jolene is by far the most interesting. Several copied the song, such as Miley Cyrus, and while not bad, it seems to not quite capture the underlying idea of the song. I have a hard time Miley being as plausible in the "please don't steal my man just because you can" compared to Dolly. It's like a whole generation in between and the lyrics just don't really fit much at all to Miley, even if one reasons that it is the melody that is more important - but even then, Miley's voice seems to fit to other songs better than happy-go-lucky country songs.
uncivilized4 hours ago
This comment makes it seem like you really wanted to attack Miley rather than discuss Dolly’s health.
jeffrallen9 hours ago
Make time to listen to Dolly Parton's America podcast:
chews10 hours ago
She did so much for children's literacy, underserved children have benefited from her reading program. I support her book club because it makes humans smarter. The world really lost a great spirit.
Kye10 hours ago
Dolly Parton seemed nice on that episode of The Orville.
Bud3 hours ago
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brcmthrowaway9 hours ago
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gigatexal10 hours ago
very, very sad. she was such a good person in this age of trump especially in the country music scene
kstrauser10 hours ago
Even if, say, hypothetically, that I agreed with you, we don't need to bring up that name in association with this perfect angel of a lady on this sad day.
Let's just say that she's a wonderful person and an excellent example and leave it at that.
jacquesm9 hours ago
It is a lot easier to appreciate the light when you're aware of the dark.
cramer4next5 hours ago
Yes. Much better to talk about Biden. The worst 4 years of my life. Dolly's music was the only thing that got me through. God Bless her soul.
DonHopkins9 hours ago
[flagged]
swasheck8 hours ago
the unifying power of dolly actually forced him to transcend even that. apparently he had nothing but nice things to say about her (and nothing about himself) on truth.
GaryBluto8 hours ago
Don't you see the irony in complaining about a hypothetical scenario in which Trump makes Dolly Parton's death about himself under a submission completely unrelated to Donald Trump?
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kstrauser8 hours ago
Let's not even waste time thinking about that cretin when we have someone much better, and something sadder, to consider at the moment.