Dolly Parton liked to tell a story about the time she entered a Dolly Parton lookalike contest at a West Hollywood gay bar. When they walked across the stage... whoever got the most applause won the contest. Here I come walking across the stage, and I got the least applause!
So I always say, it’s terrible when [you’re Dolly Parton and you] lose a Dolly Parton lookalike contest!” The Queen of Country’s death at the age of 80 has been announced by her family, sparking a global outpouring of grief. While she may have had a look that was easy to replicate, she was unquestionably one of a kind. A sharecropper’s daughter born in a two-room log cabin in rural Tennessee, her songwriting savvy and shrewd mind for business made her wealthy beyond her wildest dreams, with an estimated net worth of $500 million.
One of the most famous musicians on the planet, she was beloved across political and social divides: a self-made country music star and committed Christian who never forgot her Southern roots while championing LGBTQ rights, pouring money into childhood literacy programs and helping to fund a Covid vaccine. Growing up “dirt poor” as the fourth of 12 children, Parton started singing in the local church at the age of six but later said she modeled her iconic look after “the town tramp”, despite the protestations of her father and a beating from her grandfather, a preacher. Trash.’” She maintained her larger-than-life image until her death, often quipping: “It takes a lot of money to look this cheap.” Parton moved to Nashville to pursue her musical dreams the day after she graduated high school.
That same day, while sat outside the Wishy Washy Laundromat waiting for her laundry, she met a Nashville local who warned her she could get sunburned. That was Carl Dean, who she married two years later in 1966. They remained together for 59 years until his death in March 2025, and during that time were seen so rarely in public that fans began to speculate he might not even exist.
Parton, who described him as a “homebody and a loner”, wrote in her 1994 memoir that he had simply explained to her after his sole trip to a major music event shortly after their marriage that he preferred life out of the limelight. Most famously, it was a bank teller with eyes for Dean who inspired “Jolene”, the infectious 1973 country staple that became Parton’s signature anthem. Enjoy unlimited access to 100 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music Sign up now for a 30-day free trial.
This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent. It was kinda like a running joke between us — when I was saying, ‘Hell, you’re spending a lot of time at the bank. I don’t believe we’ve got that kind of money.’ So it’s really an innocent song all around, but sounds like a dreadful one.” Her husband’s decision to avoid any contact with the press contributed to long-running rumors about Parton having affairs with her collaborators, stories she didn’t exactly outright deny.
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