Dolly Parton
American singer and songwriter Dolly Parton (born 1946) was born into poverty but used her talent and determination to become one of the best known women in country and pop music. Her business insight has made subsequent expansion ventures into an empire.
Dolly Rebecca Parton was born in Locust Ridge, Sevier County, Tennessee, on January 19, 1946. She was the fourth of twelve children born to Robert Lee and Avie Lee Parton. Her father was a sharecropper, farming someone else's land in return for a share of the crop, and the family was very poor. The family moved to a new house when Parton was five years old. The house was rundown and required a lot of work, but Robert Parton was proud to own it. Parton's grandfather was a preacher in a Pentecostal church and the family all played music and sang in the church.
Parton began writing music and playing the guitar when she was seven years old. She would sing everywhere she went, always trying to get her siblings to sit in front of her while she performed. She would even occasionally perform for the chickens, pigs, and ducks. "They didn't applaud much, but with the aid of a little corn, they could be counted on to hang around for a while," she wrote in her autobiography, Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business. Sometimes she got to sing in front of real audiences when the Parton girls would sing at area churches.
Started Singing Professionally
Parton's uncle, Billy Earl Owens, recognized her musical talent early in her life. He taught her to play the guitar and songwriting. In 1956, he brought her to the attention of Cas Walker. Walker owned a grocery store chain and used a show on the radio to promote his stores. When she was ten years old, Parton sang on the show in front of a live audience in Knoxville, Tennessee. The crowd cheered. "At that very moment I fell in love with the public. This was what I had always wanted—no, needed. It was the attention I had longed for. I knew what they were giving me. Now I had confidence in what I had to give them," she wrote.
Parton desperately wanted to sing at the Grand Ole Opry, but it was difficult to get a spot on the program. Then, when she was twelve years old, Jimmy C. Newman gave her his spot, and she got her chance.
Henry Owens, Parton's uncle, was in the service in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and lived next door to Gold Band Records recording studio. He became friends with the owner and arranged for Parton to come down and make a recording. In 1960, she recorded two songs that she had written with her Uncle Bill, "Puppy Love" and "Girl Left Alone."
Parton became determined to find success. One day, when she was sixteen years old, she and her Uncle Bill waited all day at Tree Publishing until someone would see them. The waiting paid off, and when they got their appointment that evening, they signed a deal and Parton got a recording session with Mercury Records. She recorded "It May Not Kill Me (But It's Sure Gonna Hurt)" and "I Wasted My Tears (When I Cried Over You)." She was thrilled when she heard it play on WIVK, the Knoxville radio station.
Parton began to create her image. "I always wanted to be prettier," she said, according to People. "I got to fixin' myself up. I wanted my clothes tight, my makeup bright, my nails long, my lips red. I got into it."
Moved to Nashville
In 1964, Parton was the first person in her family to graduate from high school and the very next day she headed for Nashville, Tennessee. "Early next morning I boarded a
Greyhound bus with my dreams, my old guitar, the songs I had written, and the rest of my belongings in a set of matching luggage—three paper bags from the same grocery store. I had asked whatever relatives could afford to give me a graduation gift to please make it cash. I didn't want any additional baggage, and I knew I would need the money for a grub stake until I became a star. I genuinely thought that would happen before my little bit of money ran out," she wrote.
Parton rented a tiny apartment over a laundromat called the Wishy Washy. Soon after she moved in, she was outside, waiting for her clothes to dry, when a man drove by and stopped to chat. His name was Carl Thomas Dean. He stopped by several more times and finally asked her out on a date. On their first date, he took her to his parents' house for dinner. He told his mother, "Fix this girl a plate," wrote Parton. "She's the one I'm going to marry."
Parton got her first big break with Fred Foster who signed her and her Uncle Bill to a deal. Foster invested in Parton, buying her clothes and promoting her career by securing appearances on American Bandstand and at a jukebox convention in Chicago.
Parton and Carl decided to get married, but Foster warned against it, thinking she might have more record-buying appeal if she was single. Parton told Foster she would wait, but then she and Carl secretly got married in Ringgold, Georgia, on May 30, 1966, at the Ringgold Baptist Church. They kept it a secret for a year.
Made It Big
In 1967, Parton's hit "Dumb Blonde" made it into the top ten on the country charts. This caught the attention of Porter Wagoner, who had a country music show on television. He asked Parton to sing on his show for $60,000 a year. Parton knew that she had found success.
Parton's relationship with Wagoner was tumultuous. He taught her a lot about entertaining and was generous with information. "I could sing when I met Porter. After knowing him, I knew how to perform," wrote Parton in her book. However, she also resented Wagoner's need to control her career, pushing her uncles out of the way. He also pressured her to leave Monument Records and sign with RCA, which she eventually did. Despite the rocky relationship, Parton stayed with Wagoner through 1974, and Wagoner did a lot to launch her career. He continued to produce her records until 1977.
In 1970, Parton released "Joshua," which was a big hit. In 1971, both "Joshua" and "Old Time Preacher Man" won Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) Awards. "I have since won many awards and honors, but those still stand out as special," Parton wrote in her book.
In 1973, Parton released "Jolene," and in 1974, she released "I Will Always Love You" and "Love is like a Butterfly." Along with "Joshua," these hit number one on the country charts. Between 1968 and 1972, she released an amazing 21 albums and each of those years she was nominated by the Country Music Association as Female Vocalist of the Year. After this success, the time had come to leave Wagoner. She received the same nomination every year from 1974 to 1979. Two songs were written with Porter Wagoner in mind. "I Will Always Love You" was written in appreciation of all he had taught her. "Light of a Clear Blue Morning" was written when she finally made her decision to go out on her own.
Crossed Over To Pop
Parton put together the Traveling Family Band, made up mostly of family members, and headed out to face the world. She did find success, but she also found that although she made a lot of money, it was not enough to meet all her staff expenses. Therefore, she started her own publishing company, increased her public relations, started considering movie roles, and searched for songs with the potential to cross over from country into pop.
In 1975, Parton released The Best of Dolly Parton, which went RIAA Gold in August of 1978. In 1977, she released Here You Come Again, which included both country and pop music. This also went gold and then platinum in 1978.
In 1976, Parton started her own television show, "Dolly!" The show was not very successful, but a few good things did come out of it. First, one of the shows featured Emmy Lou Harris and Linda Ronstadt. "The three of us really got comfortable with just us, our voices and guitars. The result was some of the most unspoiled, pure country music I have ever been a part of. It was a forerunner of our Trio album," Parton wrote. Kenny Rogers also appeared on the show, and he and Parton later worked together on several other projects.
In 1980, Jane Fonda sent Parton a script for the movie Nine to Five. Initially, she was reluctant to take it since she did not have any training in acting. Her agent, Sandy Gallin, and Fonda both encouraged her to take it. She enjoyed it and received an Oscar nomination for writing the title song, as well as two Grammys for Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance.
In conjunction with starring in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas in 1982, Parton re-released "I Will Always Love You." She was the first performer to hit number one twice with the same song. In 1983, she starred in Rhinestone and received a Grammy nomination for the song "Tennessee Homesick Blues." She starred in Steel Magnolias in 1989.
In 1986, Parton founded Dollywood, a theme park near her hometown. Then, in 1988, just outside of Dollywood, she opened the Dixie Stampede & Dinner Show. The Dixie Stampede & Dinner Show was such a success that she proceeded to open additional locations in Branson, Missouri (1992); Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (1995); and Orlando, Florida (2003).
In 1996, Parton started a literacy program in her home-town called the Imagination Library. It provided one book each month to children from birth to their fifth birthday. The program quickly spread throughout the nation. In 2000, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) presented Parton with one of its first AAP Honors and Awards, which is
presented to someone outside the industry for promoting books and authors.
In 1999, Parton became a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 2003, Parton was honored by other country music stars with a tribute CD entitled "Just Because I'm a Woman: The Songs of Dolly Parton," sung by female country and pop stars including Melissa Etheridge, Shania Twain, and Norah Jones. In 2004, Parton was honored by the Library of Congress with The Living Legend award. Parton has no plans of retiring. As quoted in America's Intelligence Wire Parton said, "I'll be like Bob Hope, touring when I'm 100."
Books
American Decades CD-ROM, Gale Research, 1998.
Contemporary Musicians, Gale Group, 1999.
Emery, Ralph, 50 Years Down a Country Road, HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 2000.
Newsmakers 1999, Gale Group, 1999.
Parton, Dolly, Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business, HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1994.
Periodicals
America's Intelligence Wire, April 5, 2004; April 14, 2004.
Business Wire, November 3, 2003.
People, November 10, 2003.
Publisher's Weekly, July 4, 1994; January 6, 2003.
Online
"Biography for Dolly Parton," Internet Movie database, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000573/bio (January 8, 2004).
"Country Music Awards," Country Music Awards website, http://www.cmaawards.com/2003/search_artists/view_artist_17.htm (January 8, 2004).
"Grammy Awards," Grammy Awards website, http://www.grammy.com/awards/search/index.aspx (January 8, 2004).
