On Wednesday (25/08), the entertainment industry lost one of its most important figures, Dolly Parton. Dolly Parton passed away at the age of 80 at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, “peacefully.” It was said that Dolly Parton had passed away after battling “a brief battle with cancer,” as stated by her publicist Marcel Pariseau.

Dolly Parton was born on the 19th of January 1946 in Tennessee. She is the daughter of Robert Lee Parton and Avie Lee Parton. She is the 4th out of her 12 siblings. Dolly was raised in a poor environment where her family lived in a cabin in Locust Ridge, located in an isolated area in Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains of Sevier County. Back then, Dolly was forced to live in a small cabin with her 12 siblings and her parents, where they had to share a room together. Dolly’s parents were not able to afford medical bills back then. Her father alternatively paid the doctors with cornmeal instead of paying them with actual money. This modest lifestyle, however, did not stop Dolly from achieving her dream as a musician.

Dolly was raised in a very “musical family.” She stated in her interview with American Routes that her mother’s side of the family is very musical and that she always listened to her mother singing when she was younger. Her journey in music began when she was gifted a homemade guitar at only 8 years old by her maternal uncle, Bill Owens. When Dolly first received the guitar, she immediately wrote her very first song at just 13 years old, Puppy Love.

The song Puppy Love does not exactly count as one of her successful works, but it serves as a door for her to enter the music industry.  At just 13 years old, Puppy Love was played on the radio in her hometown. “The first time I heard one of my records on the radio, I was sitting up on a counter. They played my record, and I almost killed myself. [Laughs] I jumped off of the counter and slid on some water on the floor. I was running around trying to turn the radio up.” She stated this in her interview with The Boots as she was reminiscing about her early debut in the music industry. After getting her first song to be played on the radio, Dolly and her uncle, Bill Owens, pushed themselves to gain a position to perform at the Grand Ole Opry. There, she performed the song You Gotta Be My Baby by George Jones, and people loved it so much that they demanded that she do 3 encores of that song.

After performing at the Grand Ole Opry, Dolly started to build her personal branding in her hometown in Tennessee. She had performed at several places in East Tennessee before she moved to Nashville with her uncle. There, she tried to reach out to several music labels and later got signed by music labels, Monument Records and Combine Music Publishing.

Working under the two labels, Dolly first worked as a songwriter with Combine Music Publishing for several country singers such as Hank Williams Jr. (Putting People On) and Bill Phillips (Put It Off Until Tomorrow). She has also released her first album, “Hello I’m Dolly” with Monument Records. Her job as a singer caught the attention of Porter Wagoner, the host of the number one syndicated country music TV show in the 60s, to be a part of the television program, The Porter Wagoner Show. This moment marks the rising point of her popularity, when she had written 2 songs, “I Will Always Love You” and “Jolene,” before leaving the TV Show. Both tracks became the #1 country hit at that time.

After leaving The Porter Wagoner Show, her fame skyrocketed to a different level. She started to explore more of her career by changing her music into pop  by releasing the song “Here You Come Again.” The song later won a Grammy and reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. She has also starred in the movie 9 to 5 in 1980.

Throughout her journey, Dolly was never afraid of showing her side as a philanthropist, as she loves to help others. One of her actions was when Dolly Parton helped one of the most popular African-American artists, Whitney Houston, in making the hit song “I Will Always Love You.” Not only did Dolly help Whitney, but Dolly also used a portion of her royalties from the song to support other African-American families.  “I bought my big office complex down in Nashville. So I thought, ‘Well, this is a wonderful place to be. I bought a property down in what was the Black area of town, and it was mostly just Black families and people that lived around there. It was off the beaten path from 16th Avenue, and I thought, ‘Well, I am gonna buy this place — the whole strip mall.’ And I thought, ‘This is the perfect place for me to be,’ considering it was Whitney.” I thought this was great — I’m just gonna be down here with her people, who are my people as well,” she continued. “So I just love the fact that I spent that money on a complex and I think, ‘This is the house that Whitney built.” She stated during her appearance on the TV show, “Watch What Will Happen Next With Andy Cohen.”

Dolly Parton has also left a legacy after she built a theme park based on her name, with the name “Dollywood.” The theme park is located in Tennessee, and it is one of the most popular theme parks. Dollywood was also a place where Dolly managed to create a scholarship program for her workers, called The Grow U Program. She gives out scholarships to all of her employees who work at Dollywood, be it a seasonal, part-time, or full-time worker.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is one of her most acknowledged programs. Dolly made this program because she was inspired by her illiterate yet intelligent father, as she stated, “My dad was illiterate. He was the smartest man I’ve ever known, even if he couldn’t read. He had a great business mind, great common sense, and he knew a lot about life. He just didn’t have the opportunity to go to school.”

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a program where she allows people to donate books to children across the country. The program started in 1995, starting small in Tennessee, where Dolly has donated books for the kids in her hometown. Because of its success and recognition, the program later expanded to Canada in 2006, the United Kingdom in 2007, and expanded even more in 2017, when it reached Australia, and lastly, the Republic of Ireland in 2019. The program has reached its milestone, as it has successfully delivered over 332,411,218 books to 3,197,250 kids who are registered on this program as the donation recipients.

Being born in poverty does not stop Dolly Parton from achieving her dreams. Not only has she achieved her dreams as one of the most famous and successful country singers in the world, but Dolly has also not forgotten to help people in need.  Not only that, she also funds the COVID-19 vaccine research project that was conducted by Vanderbilt University Medical Center. These contributions to society are the reason why Dolly Parton is special in the public’s eyes and what makes people honor her death.

Reporter: Firdaus Isamida Prabowo

Editor: Elga Thalita Perangin Angin, Khayla Dinda Pradwina, Fernaldhy Rossi Armanda