There is no female artist greater than Dolly Parton. She is a rags to riches real life story now inspiring many others to reach their seemingly impossible goals.
She creates amazing country songs, dresses like no other and is a movie star. She has theme parks and resorts she created and runs making her also an incredible business woman. She is a fearless woman of the Christian faith sharing her views proudly and having a wholesome and truthful image in society. Lastly, she loves the children and values education like no other giving away free novels and books to children everywhere within her own foundation she created.
Dolly was born the fourth child of twelve on January 19 in 1946 in Locust Ridge, Tennessee near the Great Smoky Mountains. She did not grow up with lots of money and, as her songs tell us, she never had much other than what was handed down or made by her mother such as her “coat of many colors”. However, that did not stop Dolly from taking the stage of “The Cas Walker Farm and Home Tour” and later joining the Port Wagoner Show, which was the take off point in her career. Eventually, her stage became the whole world.
Since then, Dolly has received awards almost world wide with her singing and songwriting including Canada and Britain. She has 11 awards from the Academy of Country Music, 3 awards from the American Music Awards, 12 awards from the CMT Music Awards, 10 awards from the Country Music Association and many more. Clearly her music is moving and well liked.
She has also been awarded for other accomplishments other than her personal music though. Dolly has two Oscar nominations, 2 Emmy awards, 6 nominations in the Golden Globes, 11 Grammys, one Tony award, and 6 nominations in the People’s Choice Awards. That’s not all of them though. She also was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 1969, the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1984 and received the Living Legend Award from the Library of Congress in 2004.
Apart from being a celebrity, Dolly is not a dumb blond but instead a smart businesswoman. As soon as she could, she started protecting her publishing rights to her songs earning her millions in royalties. This is one business aspect that set her apart from the crowd.
Furthermore, she created four businesses of her own all in her home of Tennessee. She opened DollyWood Theme Park in 1986 and currently it is the largest attraction in Tennessee and one of the largest providers of jobs for Sevier County where it is located. In 2001 DollyWood’s Splash Country Water Park was opened and in 2012 DollyWood’s Smoky Mountain Cabins was opened both with the purpose of showcasing her love for her home in the Great Smoky Mountains where she grew up and the childhood fun she had. DollyWood’s Dreammore Resort and Spa is a recent addition to Dolly’s empire with the purpose of giving families a comfy place to run away to and to relax and share those important family memories.
These attractions are just more successes for Dolly to have and more reasons for her to be named the greatest woman artist of the times.
Dolly earns another notch for being amazing when she created Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library twenty years ago with the purpose of sending free books to all kids from their birth till their fifth birthday in the Smoky Mountains. That was only where it started though. The foundation has now spread all the way to Canada, Great Britain, Australia and the Republic of Ireland helping children everywhere fall in love with books. Dolly has become the Santa Clause of books nicknamed “the Book Lady” because of this.
Growing up in a church, Dolly sang with the choir growing her relationship with God. She now has maintained her faith throughout her fame portraying it through songs and movies she has made or been a part of.
Specifically, she recently won a Grammy award for her collaboration with King & Country on the song “God Only Knows” as Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance and Song. She gives a truthful display of her life and who she is. Though you may say she is partly made of plastic, which she is, she did so without regret and maintaining her self image and childhood roots. She moves through life dazzling with a smile and, after 74 years, she is still going strong with her “9 to 5” lifestyle.
Even if you didn’t know her start or where she came from, even if you didn’t know she had a coat of many colors and no money, you knew her name. Everyone knows who Dolly is because of DollyWood, the plastic surgery jokes about Dolly only sleeping on her back, the fact she is Miley Cyrus’s godmother, and the multiple movies she makes appearances in.
You don’t have to know Dolly as a country singer to know her influence on the world making her the greatest woman artist. She transcends her times of black and white shows and bluegrass music into my generation of gospel music and Tik Tok sounds. No one is as timeless and dazzling as the one and only Dolly Parton.
