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Dolly Parton, beloved musician and philanthropist, has died at 80. In her birthplace, local people remember her not only for her songs, but for her lifetime of generosity to the place she came from.
For many people in the Appalachian region, and particularly in the Smoky Mountains, connections to Parton ran deeper than the usual adoration of a celebrity — a connection based on shared experience and sense of place.
Parton’s most famous songs often referred back to her childhood in the mountains of East Tennessee. She evoked her small-town upbringing, chasing fireflies, listening to the sounds of crickets and smell of honeysuckle in “Tennessee Mountain Home”; “Coat of Many Colors” came from finding pride the artful ways her mother made her feel special despite difficult and impoverished circumstances; “Applejack” is about a local Smoky Mountain banjo player.
Parton was born in a holler called Locust Ridge, in the Appalachian community of Sevier County, Tennessee. The people there never forgot her, and for all her years touring the globe, she never forgot them, either.
In the Sevierville town square in a statue of Parton sits smiling and holding a guitar. Since the announcement of her passing, the flowers have piled up at its feet. On Tuesday, as more and more learned the news, doors began to open, and people poured in.
As Jared Mitchell, 27, watched from the sidewalk, he was teary.
“If there was anything close to an angel walking among us, it was her,” Mitchell said. I know everybody’s brokenhearted about it.”
He works at Dollywood, the theme park Parton founded that employs 4,000 locally. He’s worked there since high school and says she knew his name.
“We actually were a part of the Imagination Library growing up, like all of it,” Mitchell said. “Dolly has touched our lives my entire life.”
The Imagination Library was her children’s literacy project, mailing free books to children from birth to age five. The program can be found in Buncombe County as well, and is run by the Buncombe Partnership for Children.
At the statue, Tom Aitken laid another bouquet on top of the pile. His wife works at the women’s wing of the local hospital - which Parton funded.
“If we didn't have her, people would be going to Knoxville because we wouldn't have that stuff available to women here in this community,” Aiken said. “It's huge.”
Because of her, women can get mammograms and reproductive care locally at Covenant Health Hospital.
That’s not even half the list. In 2016, after a deadly wildfire in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, she supported affected families with $1,000 per month for half a year. After Helene, she distributed $2 million for Helene relief efforts. She also supported scholarships for local high school seniors to attend college, which her parents never got to do.
“Her music's secondary to what she's done for this community,” Aitken said.
