Dolly Parton was a backwoods Tennessean with gargantuan native talent. She became a superstar.
"Jolene" is one of the great crossover country hits, and "Coat of Many Colors' is a modern American folk song. She was a talented actress and a giant of literacy philanthropy. For me, though, the real and most endearing Dolly Parton lay in her lack of pretension and her gift for self-mockery.
"It cost me a million dollars to look this cheap.”
“I'm not a fashion icon; I'm a fashion eyesore.”
“In a hundred years I want people to say that she looked pretty good for her age."
She always failed to take herself too seriously. It's a lesson for us all. She leaves behind a grand, but melancholy, canyon.
