I loved Dolly Parton for so many reasons, and honestly, her music was only part of it.
Yes, she was an incredible singer. Yes, she was one of the greatest songwriters of all time. But what I admired most was the woman she chose to be after she became successful.
Dolly came from almost nothing. She grew up poor in the mountains of Tennessee, and she never tried to hide it or rewrite that part of her story. She wrote about it. She laughed about it. She talked openly about it. Coat of Many Colors describes her life as a little girl so perfectly. Every time I hear it, it tugs at every one of my heartstrings. A little girl wearing a coat her mother made from scraps. She was so darn proud of that coat and the other kids made fun of her for being poor. But Dolly didn’t seem to understand either or let it dampen her sweet spirit. In her eyes she was rich, rich with love from a mother that would make her that coat.
And then that little girl grew up and built an absolute empire. She is admired by more people than she probably ever even knew!
But somehow, through the fame, the money, the businesses, the awards and everything else she accomplished, she never seemed to forget where she came from.
She gave back. She helped people. She invested in communities. She encouraged children to read. She seemed genuinely generous, kind and loving — and you didn’t have to know her personally to feel it.
And then there was her personality.
I could watch Dolly in interviews all day because she was hilarious. She was candid. She could laugh at herself. She could make a joke about her hair, her clothes, her body or all the work she’d had done before anybody else even had the chance.
She wasn’t trying to convince the world she was something she wasn’t.
She was just Dolly.
Big hair. Rhinestones. Huge personality. Strong opinions. Faith. Humor. Kindness. Ambition. All of it.
Completely and unapologetically herself.
And I think that’s what so many women — myself included — admired about her.
There is something incredibly powerful about watching a woman walk into a room without shrinking herself to make anyone else comfortable. She would say she would be sitting in a boardroom full of men and tell them to ignore the boobs and her hair and whatever else and carry on. LOL!
Dolly never seemed embarrassed by where she came from, embarrassed by wanting more, embarrassed by being feminine, embarrassed by being ambitious or embarrassed by being successful.
She simply owned who she was.
One of the things she said over the years about taking chances has always stuck with me. Her attitude was essentially: I’ve already known what it’s like to have nothing. Anything I gain from here is a blessing. She was NOT scared of failure in the least. She said I never considered myself a loser even if I lost because she would at least gain a lesson from the experience to use for the future.
Think about how freeing that mindset is.
She knew what poor looked like. She knew what struggling felt like. She knew she could survive without all the things she eventually built.
So why be afraid to try?
Why be afraid to fail?
Why not dream ridiculously big?
That is probably one of the biggest lessons I take from Dolly Parton’s life.
Your beginning does not get to decide your ending.
You can come from very little and still build something extraordinary.
You can become successful without forgetting the people who helped you along the way.
You can be ambitious and generous.
You can be glamorous and intelligent.
You can be funny and powerful.
And maybe most importantly, you can become more successful than you ever imagined without becoming somebody else in the process.
Dolly became bigger than life while somehow remaining unmistakably herself.
And I think that’s why I loved her.
