I am a devoted disciple of the Holy House of Dolly Parton. I have been a member of this congregation for a long time. I consider wildflowers, eagles and butterflies, rhinestones, long nails and big hair all sacred. I dress so my outside matches my inside. I walk to the beat of my own banjo. I don’t dismiss anything without fully understanding its value — you may see a box of rags, I see a magical coat.
I have prayed at the altar of cheeky jokes and great songwriting for as long as I can remember. I don’t believe my love for Dolly is unique or special. I am one of millions and millions of people who love her, who, like me, have made pilgrimages to the hallowed woods of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, to consume and love all things Dolly and roller coasters. It feels like being a part of a very special club that everyone gets to belong to.
If you tell me a Dolly story, I will tell you three in return, give you a playlist, two movie suggestions and a couple of great You Tube videos to Google. What can I say? The only religious mission I’ve ever been on is to spread the good word of Dolly Rebecca Parton Dean.
The warmest place I have ever lived was in the glow of Dolly. She showed me how to glow myself — to be proud of the unique, weird, wonderful human I am. When the light in my own life felt dim, I could always count on Dolly to share some of hers with me. Her music helped me see through tunnels of darkness in my life and realize that the glow carrying me forward was actually me.
In all the news stories and conversations I’ve overheard this week about Dolly, there is one thing I’ve noticed that people haven’t quite gotten right about her.
I keep hearing people say, “Dolly came from nothing.”
Every time I hear someone say this, I think, “Well, if you think Dolly Parton came from nothing, you may not be listening to enough Dolly Parton.”
Sure, she may have started out wearing rags and ended up covered in rhinestones, but Dolly Parton never came from nothing. She came from the Great Smoky Mountains, where she lived in awe of the natural world, getting lost in those hallowed woods chasing butterflies. She came from a family that loved her dearly. She came from singing on the porch and knowing a good story can help mend your heart. You can listen to her music and she will tell you this directly. (This is where I would hand you a playlist that includes, but is not limited to, “Old Black Kettle,” “My Tennessee Mountain Home,” “In The Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)” and “Smoky Mountain Memories.”)
And of course, the song Dolly always called her favorite song she wrote— “Coat of Many Colors.” This song reminds us that Dolly was rich in love, family, faith, music and resilience. Money was never the currency Dolly was trading in, because she knew there was so much more to the world than money.
To say Dolly Parton came from nothing erases one of the biggest themes in her music: no soul on this planet is nothing. Not you, not me, not your neighbor, not the young unwed mother or the poor working-class man. Not the trees, not the mountains, not the wind, not the birds. Everything, like she once sang, is beautiful in its own way (that one will be on the playlist, too).
“Coat of Many Colors” also teaches us something else — perhaps the most sacred truth we can mine from Dolly’s epic life: you have the power of transformation living inside you. You have the power to take any pain, ugliness, hurt or harm and make it into something else — something beautiful. That hurt those other kids put on Dolly when they made fun of her beloved coat, she lifted right off of herself by picking up her guitar and writing a song. In the process, she lifted a lot of hurt off of others, too.
As an artist, Dolly was always my north star. She was the living embodiment of what it meant to be fully alive in the life you were given and the life you built. The template of how to dream and how to do. The ultimate teacher showing us that when you shine and I shine, we reflect off of one another, making each other brighter— just like the perfect little rhinestones we are on the magical coat of Dolly Parton.
This article appears in the Source September 3, 2026.
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What a beautiful tribute to Dolly Teafly!! Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and love for an incredible woman who will continue to inspire me and remind me that showing up with love in your heart and kindness in your actions is always the way to go.