92 Fun Facts About Dolly Parton

How soon after graduating from high school in 1964 did Dolly Parton move to Nashville?

Parton left for Nashville the very next day after her 1964 graduation from Sevier County High School, and met her future husband Carl Dean within hours of arriving in the city.

Parton said 'Jolene' was inspired by a red-haired woman with what job who flirted with her husband?

A bank clerk with red hair flirted with Carl Dean whenever he came in, Parton said, and she turned that flash of jealousy into the song's plea.

Whitney Houston recorded her record-breaking cover of Parton's 'I Will Always Love You' for which film?

The Bodyguard turned a song Parton wrote as her farewell to Porter Wagoner into a global smash; Houston's version led the Hot 100 for 14 weeks, a record at the time.

What did Parton use to create the typewriter-clacking rhythm heard on '9 to 5'?

Her acrylic fingernails, run back and forth against each other, gave Parton the clacking typewriter beat as she wrote the song, a sound the finished record keeps.

In The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Parton's character Miss Mona runs a brothel known by what name?

Miss Mona's brothel is the Chicken Ranch, modeled on the real Chicken Ranch outside La Grange, Texas, which was shut down in 1973; in the film the winners of the Texas–Texas A&M football game celebrate there.

Which character does Parton play in Steel Magnolias?

Truvy Jones runs the home beauty salon where the film's women gather, and the story opens with her hiring shy beauty-school graduate Annelle on the morning of Shelby's wedding.

Dollywood, which reopened under Parton's name in 1986, stands in which Tennessee city?

Pigeon Forge, a few miles from where Parton grew up, already had the park as Silver Dollar City; she became a co-owner and it reopened as Dollywood in 1986.

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library was founded as a tribute to which member of her family?

Her father, Robert Lee Parton, never learned to read or write, which she said kept him from his dreams; she began the Imagination Library in 1995 in his honor, mailing children a free book a month.

Why was Dolly the cloned sheep named after Dolly Parton?

The donor cell came from a mammary gland, and Ian Wilmut quipped that the team 'couldn't think of a more impressive pair of glands than Dolly Parton's.'

Which singer is Dolly Parton's real-life goddaughter?

Miley Cyrus had her godmother on Hannah Montana as 'Aunt Dolly', and in 2023 the two released a new version of Miley's 'Wrecking Ball' together.

Parton's 1987 album Trio was a collaboration with which two singers?

Trio paired Parton with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt; the three had tried to record together in the mid-1970s before label and scheduling conflicts intervened, and the 1987 album won a Grammy for country duo/group vocal performance.

Who wrote 'Islands in the Stream,' Parton's 1983 chart-topping duet with Kenny Rogers?

The Bee Gees — Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb — wrote 'Islands in the Stream,' and Barry Gibb co-produced the Rogers–Parton recording; in 2005 CMT ranked it the greatest country duet of all time.

Who played Franklin Hart, the 'sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot' boss in 9 to 5?

Dabney Coleman played Franklin Hart Jr., the boss the three women kidnap and hold in his own house; the film's closing captions say Hart was later abducted by Amazons in the Brazilian jungle.

What work did Robert Lee Parton do to support Dolly and her eleven siblings?

Sharecropper Lee Parton later worked his own small tobacco farm and took construction jobs to feed twelve children; Dolly called the family dirt poor.

Where did Parton meet her future husband Carl Dean on her first day in Nashville?

Outside a laundromat, the Wishy Washy, Parton stepped out with a cold drink while her clothes washed, and Carl Dean pulled up beside her; they married two years later.

At 13, Parton made her Grand Ole Opry debut, where which country star introduced her?

Johnny Cash told the Opry crowd her daddy was listening on the radio back home, so she would be in real trouble if she didn't sing; another singer had given up his slot for her.

Unable to find paper on Wagoner's tour bus, Parton wrote 'Coat of Many Colors' on the back of what?

A dry-cleaning receipt for one of Wagoner's suits was the only paper Parton could find on the tour bus when the song came to her; once it became a hit, Wagoner had the receipt framed.

As she sewed the coat in 'Coat of Many Colors,' Parton's mother told her the Bible story of which figure?

Joseph and his coat of many colors was the story her mother told while stitching the coat from rags; at school the other children laughed at the patchwork she had worn so proudly.

Parton refused to let Elvis record 'I Will Always Love You' after Colonel Tom Parker demanded what?

Colonel Tom Parker insisted Elvis would record the song only if Parton signed over half of the publishing rights; she refused, and later joked that Whitney Houston's version earned her enough to buy Graceland.

Which singer's unrelated '9 to 5' hit No. 1 in 1981 just months after Parton's did?

Sheena Easton's '9 to 5' was retitled 'Morning Train (Nine to Five)' in the U.S. to avoid confusion with Parton's hit, and it went on to top the Hot 100 for two weeks.

Parton was paired with which action star in the 1984 comedy Rhinestone?

Rhinestone cast Parton opposite Sylvester Stallone as a New York cab driver she bets she can turn into a country singer; Parton wrote the film's songs, including 'Tennessee Homesick Blues.'

Which honor did Dolly Parton repeatedly turn down, once to avoid appearing political?

The Presidential Medal of Freedom was offered twice under Trump, when her husband's illness and then the pandemic kept her away; she said accepting it from Biden afterwards might look political.

In 2022 Parton tried to decline a nomination to which hall of fame?

Parton asked to withdraw from the 2022 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ballot, saying she had not earned it as a rock artist; after learning the hall honors many genres she accepted and was inducted on November 5, 2022.

Parton co-wrote the 2022 novel Run, Rose, Run with which best-selling author?

James Patterson co-wrote Run, Rose, Run, a thriller about a young singer arriving in Nashville; Parton released a companion album of the same name the same week, and Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine optioned the book for a film.

How did the Parton family pay Dr. Robert F. Thomas, the missionary doctor who delivered Dolly?

The family paid Dr. Robert F. Thomas with a sack of cornmeal for delivering Dolly in 1946; she later wrote a song titled 'Dr. Robert F. Thomas' for her 1973 album My Tennessee Mountain Home.

Whose hit 'Please Please Please' featured Parton on a February 2025 deluxe edition?

Sabrina Carpenter added a duet version of 'Please Please Please' with Parton to the February 2025 deluxe edition of Short n' Sweet; the original had topped the Hot 100 the previous summer.

Whose 2024 cover of 'Jolene' rewrote the lyrics so the singer warns Jolene rather than begging her?

Beyoncé's 'Jolene' on Cowboy Carter turns the plea into a warning; Parton introduces it on the interlude 'Dolly P', comparing Jolene to 'that hussy with the good hair' from Beyoncé's own songs.

Parton's $1 million gift to Vanderbilt in 2020 helped fund which company's COVID-19 vaccine?

Moderna ran early trials at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where Parton's April 2020 donation went; she called it seed money and got her own shot there in March 2021.

What was the title of Parton's 2023 album featuring guests Paul McCartney and Elton John?

Rockstar reunited Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr on her cover of 'Let It Be' and debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, the highest any Parton album reached.

Which singer did Parton replace on The Porter Wagoner Show, prompting chants from audiences?

Norma Jean had spent seven years as Wagoner's 'girl singer', and early crowds chanted her name at Parton; with Wagoner's backing she won them over.

The title 'Islands in the Stream' was taken from a 1970 novel by which author?

The title comes from Ernest Hemingway's Islands in the Stream, a novel assembled from his manuscripts and published posthumously in 1970, nine years after his death.

Who took over Parton's role in the 1980s television series based on 9 to 5?

Her sister Rachel Dennison was Jane Fonda's discovery: Fonda, an executive producer of the sitcom, asked Dolly's permission to bring her to Hollywood to read for the part.

Which director made both of Parton's first two films, 9 to 5 and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas?

Colin Higgins, the writer of Harold and Maude, directed 9 to 5 in 1980; Universal then brought him in for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, replacing the stage show's first-time film directors.

Steel Magnolias was filmed in the summer of 1988 in which Louisiana town?

Natchitoches, where playwright Robert Harling went to college, hosted the shoot from July 1988; the house used for much of the filming later became a bed and breakfast.

When the attraction that became Dollywood opened in July 1961, what was it called?

Rebel Railroad was a Civil War-themed steam-train ride whose passengers were 'attacked' by Union soldiers and train robbers; it later became the Wild West park Goldrush Junction and eventually Silver Dollar City Tennessee.

Dollywood's Wild Eagle, opened in 2012, was the first ride of what type in the United States?

Wild Eagle, built by Bolliger & Mabillard, was the first wing coaster in the United States when it opened in March 2012; riders sit on either side of the track with nothing above or below them.

Where did Parton hand over her literacy program's 100 millionth free book in February 2018?

Parton marked the Imagination Library's 100 millionth book at the Library of Congress on February 27, 2018, reading her own picture book Coat of Many Colors to a group of children there.

Where was the Opry staged when Parton joined in 1969?

Ryman Auditorium housed the Opry from 1943 until the show left for a new Opry House in 1974, so Parton became a member on the stage where she had first sung at 13.

How did Parton say she fared when she entered a Dolly Parton look-alike competition for drag queens?

She lost the contest, Parton told ABC's Nightline in 2012: she exaggerated her own look, walked across the stage unrecognized and got the least applause of anyone.

What business did Parton's husband Carl Dean run in Nashville for decades?

Asphalt and driveway paving was Carl Dean's trade, a business he took over from his father; he shunned publicity so thoroughly that Parton said he saw her perform only once.

Parton's 'My People Fund' paid Sevier County families $1,000 a month after which 2016 disaster?

The Great Smoky Mountains wildfires of November 2016 burned into Gatlinburg; Parton's fund sent about 900 families $1,000 a month, raised the final month's check to $5,000 and gave each $10,000 in all.

Three years before 'Jolene' topped the chart, which song became Parton's first solo No. 1 country single?

Joshua tells of a girl who visits a feared recluse, finds him kind and moves into his shack; it topped the country chart in February 1971, after 'Mule Skinner Blues' had reached No. 3 in 1970.

Which a cappella group's 2016 'Jolene' with Parton won a Grammy?

Pentatonix recorded 'Jolene' with Parton in 2016, and the a cappella version won the 2017 Grammy for Best Country Duo/Group Performance, the first Grammy win for the song Parton wrote four decades earlier.

Which Netflix film that Dolly Parton produced and starred in won her a Primetime Emmy?

Christmas on the Square, a Netflix musical with Parton as an angel, premiered in November 2020 and won the 2021 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Television Movie, which Parton shared as a producer.

Which 1977 album was Parton's first million-seller?

Here You Come Again went platinum after Parton turned to pop producer Gary Klein; its Barry Mann–Cynthia Weil title song reached No. 3 on the Hot 100 and the record won her a Grammy.

Parton appeared on the October 1978 cover of which magazine?

Playboy put Parton on its October 1978 cover in a bunny costume with ears; she had turned down requests to pose nude, and the issue ran a long, candid interview instead.

Which star played Sheriff Ed Earl Dodd opposite Parton in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas?

Burt Reynolds won the role after author Larry L. King pushed for Willie Nelson, who met Universal executives; once cast, Reynolds asked for script changes and a chance to sing.

Which nickname given to Parton by her nieces and nephews later became the name of a Dollywood restaurant?

Her nieces and nephews called her Aunt Granny (and Carl Dean Uncle Peepaw), and Dollywood's Aunt Granny's restaurant, a Southern buffet, took the name; the couple helped raise several of her younger siblings in Nashville.

Sandollar Productions, co-owned by Parton and Sandy Gallin, produced which hit TV series?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer began as a 1992 film that Sandollar produced; the company's television chief, Gail Berman, then went back to its writer, Joss Whedon, to turn it into a series.

Trio's first hit single, 'To Know Him Is to Love Him,' was a remake of a 1958 hit by which group?

The Teddy Bears, the teenage trio that included Phil Spector, took 'To Know Him Is to Love Him' to the top of the charts in 1958; Spector wrote it, drawing the title from his father's gravestone.

By age 10, Parton was a regular on which Knoxville radio and television program?

The Cas Walker Show was a Knoxville grocer's way of advertising his supermarkets; Parton first sang on it in 1956 at age ten and stayed for years before leaving for Nashville.

Which 1998 Pras hit with Mya and Ol' Dirty Bastard sampled 'Islands in the Stream'?

'Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are)' built its chorus on the melody of 'Islands in the Stream,' with Mya singing the hook; it reached the pop top twenty in 1998 and was the title track of Pras's debut album.

Parton's second Oscar nomination for Best Original Song, 'Travelin' Thru', came from which 2005 film?

Parton wrote 'Travelin' Thru' for Transamerica, Duncan Tucker's 2005 film starring Felicity Huffman as a transgender woman; the song earned Oscar, Golden Globe and Critics' Choice nominations.

Which uncle was Dolly's frequent early songwriting partner and co-founder of her publishing company?

Her uncle Bill Owens co-wrote many of her early songs and co-founded Owe-Par Publishing with her; their 'Put It Off Until Tomorrow' and 'The Company You Keep' gave Bill Phillips two top-ten country hits in 1966.

Trio II's Grammy-winning cover of 'After the Gold Rush' was originally a song by which artist?

Neil Young wrote 'After the Gold Rush' as the title track of his 1970 album; the Trio II version won the Grammy for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals at the 2000 ceremony.

Parton's first country chart hit, in 1967, pushed back at a stereotype with which title?

Dumb Blonde was written by Curly Putman, not Parton; it reached No. 24 and went onto her debut album, Hello, I'm Dolly, later that year.

At 19, Parton signed with which label, which pitched her as a bubblegum pop singer?

Monument Records signed Parton in 1965 and pitched her as a bubblegum pop singer, thinking her voice unsuited to country; it relented after her song 'Put It Off Until Tomorrow' became a country hit for Bill Phillips.

Parton and Carl Dean married on May 30, 1966, in which Georgia town?

Ringgold was chosen for secrecy: her record label had asked her not to marry yet, so the couple slipped into Georgia, with only her mother, the preacher and his wife as witnesses.

In 1972 Parton and Dean moved to their long-term 75-acre home in which Tennessee city?

Parton and Carl Dean settled in Brentwood, south of Nashville, in 1972 on a roughly 75-acre property where Dean and family members built the house themselves; it remained their primary home for five decades.

Parton played dulcimer, banjo, fiddle and saxophone, yet never learned to do what?

Parton never learned to read sheet music and picked up each instrument without it; her own verdict was that she played some of everything and wasn't that good at any of it.

In Gnomeo & Juliet, Parton's gnome character Dolly Gnome announces what event?

Dolly Gnome, voiced by Parton, is the announcer of the lawnmower race between the feuding Red and Blue gardens in Gnomeo & Juliet, the 2011 animated retelling of Romeo and Juliet set to Elton John songs.

Which Alabama city's W.K. Wilson Jr. Bridge is nicknamed 'the Dolly Parton Bridge'?

The General W.K. Wilson Jr. Bridge carries Interstate 65 over the Mobile River north of Mobile, Alabama, and its twin steel arches earned it the local nickname 'the Dolly Parton Bridge.'

Japewiella dollypartoniana, named for Parton in 2015, is what kind of organism?

Japewiella dollypartoniana is a lichen — a fungus living with algae — found growing on trees in the southern Appalachians and described in 2015 by researchers who named it for Parton.

Which billionaire gave Parton a $100 million Courage and Civility Award in 2022?

Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez presented Parton with the $100 million Courage and Civility Award in November 2022, money she could direct to charities of her choice; earlier recipients included chef José Andrés and Van Jones.

Parton made her first appearance at which British music festival in June 2014?

Glastonbury put Parton on its Pyramid Stage on the Sunday, where a crowd put at more than 180,000 heard 'Jolene' and '9 to 5' and the story of the woman behind the first.

Which actress made her musical-theatre debut in 9 to 5: The Musical on Broadway?

Allison Janney, a stage veteran but never before in a musical, played Violet in the 2009 Broadway production; the show closed after 148 performances, though Parton's score earned a Tony nomination.

The 1980 film 9 to 5 and Parton's title song took their name from a 1973 group campaigning for what?

9to5, founded in Boston in 1973 by office workers including Karen Nussbaum, campaigned for fair pay for working women and better treatment of secretaries; Jane Fonda's meetings with its members inspired the film.

Before '9 to 5', the only woman to top the country chart and Hot 100 did so with what?

Jeannie C. Riley's 'Harper Valley PTA' topped both the Hot 100 and the country chart in 1968, a feat no other woman matched until '9 to 5'; Parton covered it on In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad).

In 2021 Parton asked Tennessee lawmakers to drop a bill honoring her with what?

A statue at the Capitol was not right for the moment, Parton said: with all that was going on in the world, she did not think putting her on a pedestal was appropriate.

In the 1992 comedy Straight Talk, Parton's small-town dance teacher is mistaken for whom in Chicago?

A radio call-in therapist is who the station thinks has walked into its studio; put on the air, Shirlee wins listeners with blunt advice, and James Woods co-stars as an investigative journalist.

Which magazine ranked 'Jolene' No. 1 on its 2024 list of the 200 greatest country songs?

Rolling Stone had ranked 'Jolene' ninth on its 2014 country list and 63rd among all songs in 2021 before naming it the greatest country song of all in 2024.

Parton called which 1977 single her 'song of deliverance' after leaving Porter Wagoner?

Light of a Clear Blue Morning came out of the pain of her break with Porter Wagoner, Parton said; it opened New Harvest... First Gathering, the first album she produced herself.

Which bluegrass star produced Parton's 1989 comeback album White Limozeen?

Ricky Skaggs produced White Limozeen with fiddle, banjo and steel guitar, steering Parton back to traditional country after the pop album Rainbow; it yielded two country chart-toppers.

Eagle When She Flies' week at No. 1 in 1991 interrupted a 14-month run by which artist?

Eagle When She Flies spent a week atop the country albums chart in 1991, briefly breaking Garth Brooks's long hold on the spot; it was Parton's first solo chart-topping album since 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs in 1981.

Parton's 2002 album Halos & Horns featured her cover of which Led Zeppelin song?

Stairway to Heaven closes Halos & Horns, one of only two covers on an album of her own songs; two decades later Parton recorded it again with Lizzo.

Honky Tonk Angels (1993) paired Parton with Tammy Wynette and which other country legend?

Loretta Lynn joined Parton and Tammy Wynette on Honky Tonk Angels, a gold-certified 1993 album whose remake of 'Silver Threads and Golden Needles' became a single; it was her first three-way collaboration since Trio.

Parton and James Ingram's Oscar-nominated 'The Day I Fall in Love' came from which film?

'The Day I Fall in Love' from Beethoven's 2nd, the 1993 St. Bernard sequel, earned a Best Original Song nomination for writers James Ingram, Carole Bayer Sager and Clif Magness; Parton and Ingram sang it at the ceremony.

Which Brad Paisley ballad, with Parton's harmonies, returned her to the top of the country chart?

When I Get Where I'm Going came with a video of home movies showing Paisley with his late grandfather; Parton appears in it holding a photograph of her own grandfather.

'Old Flames Can't Hold a Candle to You' co-writer Pebe Sebert is which pop star's mother?

Pebe Sebert, who co-wrote 'Old Flames Can't Hold a Candle to You' with Hugh Moffatt, is Kesha's mother; Kesha recorded the song as a duet with Parton on her 2017 album Rainbow.

Which disco star wrote Parton's 1980 country No. 1 'Starting Over Again'?

Donna Summer wrote 'Starting Over Again' with her husband Bruce Sudano, and Parton's recording topped the country chart in 1980, one of her chart-toppers that year alongside 'Old Flames Can't Hold a Candle to You.'

Parton became co-owner of Dollywood in 1986 alongside which theme park company?

Herschend, the Missouri family firm behind Branson's Silver Dollar City, already ran the Tennessee park under that name; Parton bought in, and the company kept operating it as Dollywood.

When it opened in 2016, Dollywood's Lightning Rod was billed as the world's first what?

Lightning Rod, built by Rocky Mountain Construction, opened in 2016 billed as the world's first launched wooden coaster; much of its track was converted to steel for 2021, and the balky launch gave way to a chain lift in 2024.

Parton's bald eagle sanctuary work at Dollywood earned a 2003 award from which agency?

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service gave Parton its Partnership Award in 2003 for Dollywood's Eagle Mountain Sanctuary, an outdoor aviary run with the American Eagle Foundation that houses non-releasable bald eagles.

Parton's honorary Oscar, announced in 2025, carries whose name?

The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, an Oscar statuette given for charitable work, was announced for Parton in 2025 in recognition of her philanthropy, after two Best Original Song nominations had gone unrewarded.

Who hosted the podcast Dolly Parton's America?

Jad Abumrad, who founded Radiolab, hosted the nine-part WNYC series in 2019; he is the son of Naji Abumrad, a friend of Parton's in whose honor she gave to Vanderbilt's children's hospital.

In NBC's 2015 film Coat of Many Colors, who played Parton's mother Avie Lee?

Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland played Avie Lee Parton in Coat of Many Colors, with Ricky Schroder as Robert Lee Parton and Alyvia Alyn Lind as the young Dolly; Parton said she had not known Nettles could act until the audition.

In Dumplin' (2018), who plays Rosie, the pageant-obsessed mother?

Jennifer Aniston plays Rosie Dickson, a former beauty queen who runs the local pageant her daughter Willowdean enters in protest; the film's soundtrack is built on Parton songs, including new duets.

In Joyful Noise, Parton plays a late choir director's widow; what is her character's name?

Parton plays G.G. Sparrow, widow of a small-town Georgia choir director, who expects to take over but loses the post to Queen Latifah's Vi Rose Hill; G.G.'s grandson Randy romances Vi Rose's daughter Olivia.

Parton reunited with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda in the last season of which Netflix show?

Parton appeared as Agnes, a heavenly case worker, in the final season of Grace and Frankie in 2022, the first time she, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda had acted together since 9 to 5 in 1980.

Robert Harling wrote Steel Magnolias after his sister died from complications of what?

Harling's sister Susan had Type 1 diabetes and died in 1985 after giving birth and the failure of a donated kidney; Julia Roberts earned her first Oscar nomination as Shelby, the character based on her.

Parton's six-date Las Vegas residency announced in 2025 was booked at which venue?

Dolly: Live in Las Vegas was announced for six shows at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in December 2025, but Parton postponed the run for health reasons and cancelled it in May 2026.

Parton's 2020 single 'Cuddle Up, Cozy Down Christmas' was a duet with which crooner?

Michael Bublé duetted with Parton on 'Cuddle Up, Cozy Down Christmas,' a new song she wrote for her 2020 album A Holly Dolly Christmas, her first solo holiday album since 1990.