Not to drop lore, but, Dolly Parton’s a literal angel
Jolene, this is your fault.
If you know Dolly Parton as Aunt Dolly from Hannah Montana, you already know how heavily influenced, loved, and revered she is by her on-screen and IRL goddaughter, Miley Cyrus, along with the rest of the music industry. And if you too have begged Jolene not to take your man, you are and always will be a Dolly Parton fan.
Because Dolly was Dolly, she also had the sense of humour to make fun of her own larger-than-life image. Her famous line, “It costs a lot of money to look this cheap,” is probably one of the most Dolly things ever said. She knew exactly what the hair, rhinestones and sky-high heels looked like, and clearly, she was in on the joke. Yet, her big personality and style paled in comparison to her even bigger heart and love she had for humanity.
So, if you’ve ever wondered how Parton lived her life to become such a legend, earning monikers, spreading love everywhere she went and, sadly, passing away last night, here’s a PSA on exactly what this legendary songwriter, musician, actress, philanthropist and, in my opinion, angel, did during her 80 years here on Earth.
She wrote the songs everyone knows
…even when people don’t realise they’re Dolly songs
As a musician and songwriter, Dolly Parton has given us more bangers than most people probably realise. There’s 'Jolene', obviously, a generational hit that no one, be it boomer, millennial, Gen Z or otherwise, can resist bopping to, but she also wrote 'Coat of Many Colors', '9 to 5', and 'Islands in the Stream', among more than 3,000 songs. Across a career spanning more than six decades, she moved through country, pop, bluegrass, gospel, and rock, picking up 11 Grammy Awards and inductions into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame along the way.
And then there’s 'I Will Always Love You', which Parton wrote and recorded long before Whitney Houston turned it into a global phenomenon. Before that, Elvis Presley wanted to record it, but Parton refused when his manager asked her to give up half the publishing rights. Imagine Elvis Presley asking for half your song and having the nerve to say, actually, I think I’ll keep that. Years later, Houston’s version made Parton a fortune, and she used around $10 million of those royalties to buy an office complex in a predominantly Black Nashville neighbourhood, which she nicknamed The House That Whitney Built. Honestly, the woman knew her worth.
Which brings us to the slightly ridiculous fact that even in death, Parton is still finding ways to make us hear her music. Google paid tribute to her with an animated Doodle carrying the message “We Will Always Love You”, a very Dolly-coded play on the song she wrote more than five decades ago.
She could cross genres like it was nothing
From country to R&B, rock, rap, and everyone in between
And somehow, Parton’s music kept finding new people to convert. Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter was a particularly full-circle moment. Parton appeared on the album’s spoken-word interlude 'Dolly P', introducing herself with that unmistakable voice before leading into Beyoncé’s reimagining of 'Jolene'. Beyoncé didn’t simply cover the country classic either; she rewrote parts of the lyrics, giving Parton’s original plea a more defiant edge while keeping Parton’s songwriting credit intact. It was more than just a cover; it was a new chapter in a song that has already lived several musical lives.
Parton herself went full rock star with her album Rockstar in 2023, covering everyone from Led Zeppelin and Queen to The Rolling Stones and Bon Jovi, with a frankly ridiculous guest list that included Miley Cyrus, Stevie Nicks, Elton John, Paul McCartney, P!nk, and Debbie Harry.
After her death, even Eminem, a notoriously abrasive rapper, joined the Dolly Parton appreciation club in his own way, sharing the letter she had written him after his 2022 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction. He said he was sorry he never got the chance to meet her and that her words had stayed with him. Parton apparently had the range to reach everyone from Beyoncé to Eminem. Honestly, who wasn’t a Dolly Parton fan?
She decided every kid deserves a book
And then she sent them millions of them
Dolly Parton’s philanthropy might be one of the most Dolly things about her. In 1995, she started the Imagination Library through the Dollywood Foundation, initially in her home county of Sevier County, Tennessee, sending free, age-appropriate books to children under five every month. The idea came from personal experience: her father could not read or write, and Parton wanted to make sure other children had the chance he didn’t. More than three decades later, the programme has gifted more than 300 million books to children around the world, with enrolled children receiving a new book every month until they turn five. Basically, Parton wanted everyone to be a reader. How cool is that?
She paid kids to stay in school
Because sometimes a little Dolly motivation goes a long way
Before the Imagination Library became a global programme, Parton was already trying to keep kids in her hometown in school. In the early '90s, she launched the Buddy Program, promising $500 to seventh and eighth-grade students if they graduated from high school. The programme helped reduce Sevier County’s dropout rate from 35 per cent to 6 per cent among those classes. She later expanded her educational giving through scholarships, including five annual $15,000 Dolly Parton Scholarships for high school seniors in her home county.
She helped fund a vaccine without even knowing it
Yes, Dolly Parton helped with that too
Then there’s the rather wild fact that Parton helped fund research that contributed to the development of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine. In March 2020, she donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center for Covid research, creating the Dolly Parton Covid-19 Research Fund. The money helped fund early research, including work that contributed to the development of the Moderna vaccine. Parton’s donation wasn’t, of course, “Dolly invented a vaccine”, but her money helped researchers get there, which is still a fairly extraordinary thing to have on your résumé alongside 'Jolene'.
When disaster struck, she showed up for her people
And didn’t just send thoughts and prayers
When wildfires tore through Sevier County, Tennessee, in 2016, destroying more than 1,000 homes, Parton created the My People Fund. Families who had lost their primary residences received $1,000 a month for six months, giving them some immediate breathing room while they rebuilt their lives. In 2024, when Hurricane Helene devastated parts of East Tennessee and Appalachia, she donated another $1 million to the Mountain Ways Foundation for flood relief, while her East Tennessee businesses and the Dollywood Foundation contributed another $1 million. Parton has always had a fairly simple philosophy when disaster hits: these are her people, so she helps her people.
She even made education part of the job
Literally
And because apparently running a theme park wasn’t enough, Parton also made education part of the employee package. Through GROW U, launched with her partner company Herschend Enterprises, eligible employees across its parks, including Dollywood, were offered fully funded tuition, fees, and books for more than 100 diploma, degree, and certificate programmes, alongside partial funding for additional programmes. So yes, Dolly Parton’s workplace benefits basically said, “You want to go back to school? Cool, we’ve got you.”
Even for all the talk of Parton being 'apolitical', she was never afraid to make her position on basic human decency pretty clear. When asked about Black Lives Matter in 2020, she didn’t exactly mince her words: “Of course Black lives matter. Do we think our little white asses are the only ones that matter? No!” It's this and so much more that this icon has done that she just can't be thanked enough for.
Dolly Parton was a gift to the world and, honestly, her passing feels a little like a death in the family. She gave us the songs, the wigs, the rhinestones, the jokes, the books, the scholarships, the vaccines, the Dolly-isms, and enough good deeds to make the rest of us look like we need to pick up the pace.
She was an icon, a legend, a genuinely funny woman and, by all accounts, someone who understood that being famous was only useful if you could use it to make someone else’s life a little better. The world has lost a gem, but Parton has left behind something much harder to lose: a legacy that will keep singing, reading, laughing, and giving long after she’s gone.
Rest easy, Dolly. We will always love you.
Lead image: Getty Images
Also read: Dolly Parton built a world of rhinestones, big hair, and even bigger fashion
