It's rare that we see an honest-to-goodness saint these days. It's even rarer to see one in the entertainment industry. Dolly Parton was one.
Her father never learned to read, growing up in Depression era eastern Tennessee, but she always said that he was really intelligent and always wondered what he could have done if he had had access to books. So she started her Imagination Library 31 years ago.
The charity has given away a third of a billion children's books. I don't think that I've seen anyone in my lifetime (celebrity or not) that has had this big a positive influence world wide.
As I said, a saint.
Her enormous success as an entertainer allowed her to do this. Here is a quick recap of just how enormous that success was. Note that the numbers are low because I took them from a 16 year old post, so she was even bigger than this:
- She was called the "Iron Butterfly" for her tough business negotiation, having turned down Elvis' (Elvis!) request to cover I will Always Love You. He wanted too much money - half of all royalties in perpetuity. She said no.
- She was Entertainer of the Year - one of only seven women who have ever been given this award.
- 45 Grammy nominations, 7 awards (she wuz robbed). Two Academy Award nominations.
- Ms. Magazine Woman of the Year. Country Music Hall of Fame, and Songwriter's Hall of Fame.
- A 2003 tribute album to her featured covers of her songs by Melissa Etheridge, Allison Kraus, Shania Twain, Norah Jones, and Sinead O'Connor. Yowzer.
- American Idol had a "Dolly Parton" night where everyone had to perform one of her 6000 (!) songs.
Yet she said that the greatest honor she's received is a bronze statue
on the Courthouse lawn in her hometown. She was more properly called Dr.
Dolly Parton - she received an honorary degree for her decades of work
to increase literacy. Eastern Tennessee had a real problem with that
when she was born in 1946.
Through it all, she's kept her sense of humor. Famous (or infamous) for
her showy outfits and huge wigs (among - ahem - other things), she has
been known to say "It takes a lot of money to look this cheap." When Dolly was originally on the UK TV's Graham Norton Show, Graham was wearing quite a loud suit, for which he apologized. Without batting an eye, Dolly said Don't you worry yourself, my aunt had a sofa just like it. It was instant chemistry, and Norton and Parton became great friends, to the point where he recorded a duet of Islands In The Stream with her at her theme park, Dollywood.
Unusually for an entertainment celebrity, she was married to her husband, Carl Dean, for almost 60 years until his death. When asked if she was going to remarry, she demurred, saying I don’t think I’ll ever be married but once. I think Carl’s waiting for me on the other side, and if I turned up at the pearly gates with somebody else, he wouldn’t like that! He’d be saying, ‘Who’s that little [bleep]? You leave him outside the gates and if the Lord wants him in here, you get on in here with me!
Needless to say, The Queen Of The World and I are huge Dolly Parton fans. There's a real sense of loss in her passing, that we shall not see her like again. But our loss is Heaven's gain. Like I said, a saint.
So long, Dolly. Thanks for making the World a better place.
1 comment:
Nice tribute to a fine person. Never heard a bad word from or about her.
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