Dolly Parton: Interesting Facts, Figures And Quotes
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Dolly Parton, the legendary American country music singer-songwriter, actress, and philanthropist born on January 19, 1946, and left an unforgettable mark on global culture.
Dolly Parton, the singer and songwriter, who has died aged 80, used her talent, intelligence and extraordinary looks to escape first poverty, and then the restrictive, sexist world of American country music; she went on to become a highly successful mainstream recording artist, television and film celebrity, business entrepreneur, philanthropist, and international icon.
She was, possibly, best known for her appearance, particularly her outsize bosom, which, as she remembered, was already “well in evidence” by the time she was 12, when after immersion in the river for her baptism, “my white cotton dress became somewhat transparent in the rushing water, and the boys on the bank were moved to shout ‘Hallelujah!’”.
Her look was further enhanced by enormous blonde wigs; when asked how long it took her hairdresser to style her hair, she once replied: “I have no idea. I’m never there.” Her dresses, which were, she admitted, “gaudy” and “tasteless”, completed her “white trash” image, something she had no shame in embracing, often telling interviewers “it costs a lot to make a person look this cheap” and even thanking her plastic surgeons in her autobiography.
Incredible Creative Feats
Two Masterpieces in One Day: Dolly wrote both Jolene and I Will Always Love You during the exact same afternoon in 1972.
The Inspiration for Jolene: The name came from a young fan who asked for an autograph, while the haunting lyrics were playfully inspired by a red-headed bank teller who flirted with her husband, Carl Dean.
Lost Lookalike Contest: She once secretly entered a Dolly Parton drag queen lookalike contest in a gay bar and actually lost the competition.
Humble Beginnings and Early Life
Paid with Cornmeal: Born as the fourth of 12 children in a one-room cabin in Tennessee, her parents paid the delivering doctor with a sack of cornmeal (or oats).
Early Star: She recorded her very first single, Puppy Love, at just 13 years old on a small Louisiana label.
Early Risers Only: She was known to wake up every single day at 3:00 AM, stating she got more work done by 6:00 AM than most people did in a week and a half.
Philanthropy and Records
Millions of Books: Through the Dollywood Foundation's Imagination Library, she gifted well over 250 million free books to children globally from birth to age five.
World Records: She held 10 Guinness World Records spanning her decades-long career as a chart-topping artist.
Cloned Sheep Connection: The world's first-ever cloned mammal, Dolly the sheep, was explicitly named after Dolly Parton in 1996 because the sheep was cloned from a mammary gland cell.
Earlier this year, a survey revealed that Dolly Parton topped the list of global figures in a US favorability poll. The 11-time Grammy winner had a net favorability of 65 percent; Obama came second with 14 percent. For the US public, the feeling that Dolly Parton expressed in her country music chart-topping 1974 classic I Will Always Love You is clearly mutual.
