Dolly Parton: Our Fairy Godmother, Forever
- Arianna B. Bartolozzi
- 11 minutes ago
- 4 min read
It's difficult to know where to start to talk about Dolly Parton, because where do you even start with someone who has done so much? Music feels like the obvious answer, but it probably isn't enough. While the world has spent the past few hours remembering the singer behind Jolene, 9 to 5 and I Will Always Love You, among many others, it feels almost impossible to talk about her as just a musician.
For many people outside the USA, particularly Millennials and older Gen Z, Dolly may have first entered their lives through Hannah Montana. By the time she appeared on the show, however, she was already a country music institution. She had spent decades building a career as a songwriter, performer, actress, entrepreneur and one of the most recognisable women in entertainment.
One of the things that made Dolly extraordinary was that she never seemed interested in being confined to one definition of what a woman in entertainment was supposed to look like. She could be glamorous. She could be funny. She could wear rhinestones, huge hair, heels and glitter. And at the same time, she could walk into a room and be taken seriously as a songwriter, businesswoman, philanthropist and cultural force. Her colorful femininity was never something she felt she needed to strip away in order to be respected. That, in itself, was powerful.
Dolly also understood that influence is not measured in records sold or awards won. Sometimes, it is measured in what you give to people. She gave hundreds of millions of dollars to philanthropic causes throughout her life, with much of her work focusing on children, education, literacy, healthcare, disaster relief and animals, including her support for the protection and rehabilitation of bald eagles. Many of her donations were anonymous.
In1995, she founded the Imagination Library inspired partly by her father, who had been unable to read or write. The programme began by providing free books to children in her home county in Tennessee and eventually expanded internationally. Today, it has gifted more than 300 million books, with millions more being sent to children every month. Dolly Parton became known as the "Book Lady," so she would surely be happy if we all started reading a new book in her honour.
A woman who spent her life writing songs gave children books. A woman whose voice travelled around the world helped give other children the opportunity to find their own voices. Reading is about education, imagination, culture, change. It is about language, curiosity, confidence and so much more, including the possibility of discovering a larger world.
That same generosity appeared throughout Dolly's life. As mentioned, she supported medical research, disaster relief and countless charitable causes. She was also known for her love of animals and for a deeply personal approach to faith and kindness: one that repeatedly placed compassion above judgement.
There is a quote that Dolly shared that feels particularly appropriate today:
If you spend all your time worrying about the bees, you're never gonna get a chance to taste the honey.
It is a philosophy for the way she lived. If you spend your entire life looking at the things that might sting you, you might miss everything that makes life sweet, and Dolly never seemed willing to miss the honey.
Dolly Parton will live in her songs. She will live in the children who grew up with books sent to their homes because of her. She will live in the charities she helped and in the people she inspired. She will forever be the fairy godmother of all those who admired her as both a musician and as a person, and who will keep doing it.
Her passing also comes only weeks after another giant of music left us. On August 6, Italy lost Francesco Guccini, the songwriter, writer and intellectual whose music became part of the cultural memory of generations. Guccini was a very different kind of artist from Dolly Parton. Different country, different language, different musical tradition, different public persona. And yet, there is something they shared: neither treated music as something separate from the world around them. Guccini's songs were deeply connected to politics, injustice, memory, war, social change and ordinary people. Italian singer Donatella Rettore recently described him as one of the few Italian singer-songwriters she considered feminist.
We don't want this project to be a music necrologist because music is eternal: if we don't write about an artist who has passed away, it doesn't mean that we don't care, at all. It doesn't mean that their music didn't matter to us, or that we don't recognise the impact they had. It's simply because we don't believe things have to be shared publicly to be valid.
We'll leave you with Dolly's words to her Imagination Library Graduates:
"Dear Imagination Library Graduate,
My, how time flies. It seems it was only yesterday when your family and friends read you your first story. You were just a baby. Now you're five years old and about to go to school. How exciting!
This may be your last book from my Imagination Library but you have to promise me you will keep on reading. If you go to your local public library you will find a great number of books just for kids your age. Every book is a treasure and every time you open one up you will meet new friends and take wonderful journeys to magical places.
I hope you have a great time in school. I bet your school will even have a library where you can check out books. You and all of your friends are very special. There is no limit to what you can do or how far you can go.
Just remember the lessons my family taught me - dream big dreams; learn everything you can learn; and care for all those who care for you. You do all of these things and you can be anyone you want to be.
You are terrific, and remember. . .
I Will Always Love You,
Dolly"
