Dolly Parton has passed away like a true rock star. A paragon of intelligence, courage and style

Dolly Parton, one of the few figures capable of uniting today’s America, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 80. She had declined the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which had been offered to her twice by Donald Trump and once by Joe Biden. Yet rarely has there been such bipartisan mourning.

She was an innovator and a prolific artist; a successful entrepreneur and a quiet philanthropist. She wrote around three thousand songs, released some fifty albums and sold around 100 million copies worldwide. Whilst these figures are impressive, they do not fully explain the impact she has had on American society. In her induction speech at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the singer Pink said that Parton “created heart-wrenching stories that deeply touched the soul, about the lives of people who are often overlooked”, offering “painful, beautiful and poetic musical commentaries on what it means to be human and what it means to be a woman in America”. At the same time, she knew how to be irresistibly witty: joking about her bombshell looks, she said that “people don’t know how expensive it is to look so cheap”.

Her career began in the parish, where she performed from a very young age. She wrote her first song at the age of 5 and, as soon as she finished school, bought a ticket to Nashville and set out on the road to success. This came in 1967 with ‘Dumb Blonde’ (she would later say: ‘I don’t take offence at jokes about dumb blondes: I know I’m not dumb and, above all, I know I’m not blonde’). Among her most famous hits are ‘Jolene’, ‘9 to 5’, ‘Coat of Many Colours’ – about the poverty she experienced as a child – and ‘I Will Always Love You’. In 1992, Whitney Houston sang it in the film ‘The Bodyguard’, making it the best-selling single ever by a female artist. With the approximately ten million in royalties, Parton built an office complex (“the house built by Whitney”) in an African-American neighbourhood of Nashville. Aware of the burden of social marginalisation, Parton has in fact donated a considerable portion of her earnings to charity. Her best-known initiative is the “Library of Imagination”, a programme that sends one free book a month to children up to the age of five. It is estimated that over 300 million books have been distributed. She also established several scholarships and, in 2020, donated one million dollars to research into the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine.

From an artistic perspective, she was eclectic: she sang, acted and appeared on variety shows. She recorded two albums with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt and sang with, amongst others, Paul McCartney, Elton John and even Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy. Out of respect for her fans, she always avoided taking sides with either the Republicans or the Democrats. But she has never shied away from controversy, such as that surrounding her openly professed faith or her stance in favour of civil rights. She once took part in a competition at a gay bar for the best Dolly Parton impersonation: she came second.

Despite her high-profile presence, she jealously guarded her private life: there were very few public appearances with her husband, the entrepreneur Carl Dean, whom she married in 1966 and who died in 2025. In recent months she has been battling cancer, acknowledging her illness without letting it hold her back: her latest video, posted on social media on 12 August, announced the autumn opening of the Life of Many Colours Museum. On 15 August she reposted the video for ‘Island in the Stream’, the lovely duet with Kenny Rogers (‘sail away with me / to another world’). His final song, “My Place in History”, is sealed inside a time capsule at his Dollywood theme park (talk about irony). It will be released in 2045, when he would have turned 99.

Dolly Parton has built a character that appears superficial and stereotypical, transforming her self-deprecating humour into a tool for freedom: she has become a universal icon and a model of intelligence, courage and style. “She didn’t leave this world as a fragile, defenceless woman,” commented Miley Cyrus, for whom she was a godmother and mentor, “but as a true rock star, in heels and leather.”