Goodbye, Dear Dolly

This one hit hard. 

The loss is tremendous. Just as big as her ample... ...personality. 

There is absolutely no one on earth that compares. Dolly was literally in a class by herself.

She thrust herself with grit and sheer will, with a little help from her huge talent, from the dirt-poor hollers of Tennessee to the bursting nebula of Stardom.

Tributes have poured in about the Queen of Country. They talk about her immense musical talent. And it was immense. She wrote over 3000 songs. Twenty-five of her songs hit #1 on the Country Billboard charts – nine #1 albums appeared there – and two songs on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 charts. 

Dolly received 11 Grammys from 30 nominations, plus numerous awards and trophies from the Country Music Association (CMA), Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards and the American Music Awards (AMAs).

She was inducted into the Grand Ol' Opry in 1969, after performing there since 1959, when she was 13 years old. She is in both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 

PLUS! Dolly earned a Primetime Emmy award, nominations for Tonys, Golden Globes, and Oscars. 

There's more, too.

Tributes have mentioned her business sense. She was a movie and television producer, a theme park developer, a shrewd protector of her rights, and a collaborator.

Tributes have mentioned her devotion. To her craft, to her husband Carl Dean, to Porter Wagoner, to her family, and to her faith. 

She was a feminist, even though she thought she wasn't. She made it big in country music when precious few women were able to, and she paved the way for other women to become superstars in their own right. 

She was political, even though she said she wasn't. Every action she took was a statement. She was deliberate about it, but never overt. 

She indeed wore a coat of many colors, and she could have made her fortune from any one of her talents. Her singing was beyond compare. She could pick the hell out of a guitar. She could have made a fortune by selling her songs; Dolly wrote an amazing number of songs, yet even in their abundance, each one was a treasure. She could have made it with just her business sense. Her business acumen was spot-on – leaving Porter Wagoner was her first best decision, and keeping the rights to "I Will Always Love You" is a close second. She could have made it just on her genuine acting. 

Hell, she could've made a fortune just from her giggle.

But what hits me most and makes me cry for the loss of her, but more for the having of her, was that she was the embodiment of inclusivity and authenticity. 

Dolly loved everybody unconditionally. Period. She embraced all, north and south, right and left, queer and straight, black, white, whoever. She especially loved her fans. She never forgot that her fans were the ones who cast her into the Megastar Atmosphere. There was no one that Dolly didn't love, even if they didn't love her back. But just about everyone did.

Making it to superstardom and multi-millionaire status was just a means to an end. She cared about people, she cared about humanity. She unapologetically loved the fact that Whitney Houston's cover of "I Will Always Love you" made her millions, but she put those millions to work. She was a philanthropist extraordinaire, gifting millions of Whitney's version's dollars to invest in a black community in Nashville, using more millions to lift up "her people" of Tennessee for education and after disasters. She donated a million dollars for the development of the covid vaccine, and most enduring of all, the millions and millions of books that she provided to hundreds of millions of children around the world. Her 30-year-old Imagination Library (please consider donating) is now reaching its second generation of children. 

She was 100% authentic. Yes, she had plastic surgery; yes, she had an out-of-this-world big-wig, big-boob, red-lip, high-heel, rhinestone persona. But Dolly never had a mask. What you saw was what you got. Dolly was unabashedly Dolly.

Losing Dolly Parton is like losing a piece of America's very being. It's not an exaggeration. If even 1% of people could embody all that is good, like Dolly did, we'd be in a far different place. WWDD? What would Dolly do? Each of us should ask that question at every crossroads. If we all did, imagine the light we'd bring!

Dolly moved through the world with dignity and warmth. Listening to Dolly sing or tell stories felt like you were home. She was intelligent, she was deep, she was funny, she was humble, she was loving, she was poignant, she was proud, she was silly. Most of all, she was kind. She was family to all of us. And that is what hits so hard. We're losing our own Auntie Dolly. 

Goodbye, dear Dolly.