Newz(AP) — Dolly Parton, the country music icon whose soaring vibrato vocals, poignant songwriting and sparkling costumes defined her rise from a log cabin in the Tennessee mountains to the height of stardom and acclaim, has died in Nashville. “After bravely facing a brief battle with cancer, Dolly departed her Earthly life today at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center surrounded by loved ones,” her publicist, Marcel Pariseau, said in a statement Tuesday. Known for her curves, massive blonde wigs and skin-tight outfits that served her self-deprecating wit, she was among the most beloved personalities in music and beyond — the rare celebrity whose appeal transcended generations, geography and politics.
She wrote hundreds of songs, including such favorites as “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors” and “I Will Always Love You,” which totaled more than 100 million worldwide sales and more than 1 billion online streams. Parton was a generous philanthropist and successful businesswoman whose projects included a theme park in the Smoky Mountain foothills near her birthplace. Her career was influenced by her upbringing as one of 12 children born into what she called a “dirt poor” Tennessee family.
She started her education nonprofit, Imagination Library, to send free books to needy children because her father quit school to work on the farm and struggled to learn to read. Her first musical performances were in church, where her grandfather was a preacher. At 13, she appeared on the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, where Johnny Cash introduced her as “a little girl here from up in East Tennessee.” With a suitcase of songs, she followed her uncle, Bill Owens, also a songwriter, to Nashville after graduating high school.
‘The Porter Wagoner Show’ Her partnership with Porter Wagoner and his syndicated TV show kicked off her career. Their first duet, “The Last Thing On My Mind,” was released in 1967, the year she started her publishing company. Their duets were often radio hits, but her solo singles didn’t chart as highly at first.
With Wagoner as co-producer, she adjusted her country warble to a more polished pop-leaning style. 1 solo single was “Joshua.” She reached the top 5 with the ballad “Coat of Many Colors,” about her mother sewing together scraps to make a coat Parton wore “so proudly” even as her peers mocked it. Known for her curvy physique, massive blond wigs and skin-tight outfits that served her self-deprecating wit, she was among the most beloved personalities in music and beyond — the rare celebrity whose appeal transcended generations, geography and politics.
She wrote hundreds of songs, including classics like “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors” and “I Will Always Love You,” that totaled more than 100 million worldwide sales and more than 1 billion online streams. Parton, who plucked bejeweled banjos, guitar and dulcimers with her long fingernails during performances, was a generous philanthropist and successful businesswoman whose projects included a theme park in the Smoky Mountain foothills near her birthplace. Her career was forever influenced by her upbringing as one of 12 children born into what she called a “dirt poor” Tennessee family.
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