Dolly Parton, RIP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How does someone do all that? How did she go from a one-room cabin on Tennessee\u2019s Little Pigeon River to the commanding heights of American celebrity? How did the daughter of an illiterate sharecropper become one of the world\u2019s foremost lyricists, the woman who wrote more than 3,000 songs, including both \u201cJolene\u201d and \u201cI Will Always Love You\u201d in the space of a single day?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The short answer is that Dolly Parton was a genius, a singular figure, someone who could do things that no one else could. But it\u2019s so much more than that. She died yesterday at the age of 80 but had long ago achieved a kind of immortality, both through her artistry and her philanthropic efforts. She was one of the last universally beloved figures in our scattered, splintered, angry age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes we look around at this dizzying country of ours and wonder what binds it all together. We should recognize that Dolly Parton was part of the glue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So today, we celebrate this great American. First, Caitlin Flanagan\u2014a lifelong fan\u2014takes a heartfelt look at Parton, who headlined the first concert she ever went to as a girl growing up in the Bay Area. This was before Parton became a movie star, before Dollywood, before she amassed the great fortune she was so eager to share with others. But for Caitlin, it was love at first sight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Next, Hannah Long explores Parton\u2019s inextricable ties to the American South, which is key to understanding her. \u201cTo Appalachians like me, this is something like the passing of Queen Elizabeth,\u201d Long writes. But how did Parton manage to be \u201cequally beloved by Baptist church ladies and buxom drag queens\u201d while remaining so purely herself, and so fixed to a particular place while becoming a worldwide phenomenon?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dolly Parton, RIP. How does someone do all that? How did she go from a one-room cabin on Tennessee\u2019s Little Pigeon River to the commanding heights of American celebrity? How did the daughter of an illiterate sharecropper become one of the world\u2019s foremost lyricists, the woman who wrote more than 3,000 songs, including both \u201cJolene\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mundo"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t