Irish country singer Margo O’Donnell has remembered her friend Dolly Parton, saying she had been “praying for a miracle” but knew the music legend was more seriously ill than people realised.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland following Parton’s death at the age of 80, O’Donnell recalled a friendship which stretched back almost three decades.
“I prayed for a miracle, but I knew Dolly wasn’t going to make it. I knew she was sicker than people knew,” she said.
O’Donnell first met Parton in the late 1990s, with the US star later appearing on her 1998 album The Highway of My Life: Shade of the Family Tree.
Margo O’Donnell and Dolly Parton have recorded numerous songs together
The pair recorded Parton’s song God’s Colouring Book together, while Parton and Irish singer Maura O’Connell also featured on O’Donnell’s recording of Wrong Direction Home.
O’Donnell said theirs became more of a personal relationship than a business one.
“I wouldn’t talk to her every week or every month but I was always in touch and always kept in touch with her,” she said.
“Every time that she would come over to say, London, or when she was in Belfast and Dublin and all that, I would get a call and I would hop on a plane and off I’d go and we’d spend time together.”
She also recalled visiting Parton’s home at Locust Ridge in Tennessee, where the singer grew up.
“I’ll never forget the first time that I went to Locust Ridge, where she was reared on the farm,” O’Donnell said.
“I’ll never ever forget the view.”
Margo O’Donnell visited Dolly Parton at her childhood home at Locust Ridge in Tennessee
She remembered being able to look out over the landscape which inspired God’s Colouring Book, saying Parton continued to return to Locust Ridge to write in later years.
“You could see where she sat on the front porch and she wrote most of her stuff. Even in latter years, she went back to Locust Ridge to write.
“They all loved her, they really did. And I loved her.”
O’Donnell also recalled Parton’s generosity when they worked together.
She said she had been unwell before they were due to record and told Parton she was unsure whether she would be able to go through with the session. Parton told her simply to get herself to the studio and she would take care of everything.
O’Donnell also remembered Parton insisting that their names be switched around on the CD after seeing that her own had been given top billing.
‘Anything to do with Dolly was an honour’
Irish singer Maura O’Connell also paid tribute to Parton on Morning Ireland, describing collaborating with her as “extra special”.
Parton provided harmony vocals on O’Connell’s recording of Jimmy MacCarthy’s The Bright Blue Rose, which appeared on her 2009 album Naked with Friends.
“The song is very special and having Dolly sing in it was extra special,” O’Connell said.
“Even though I wasn’t in the studio when she recorded it, I was told that she loved the song and she loved the sentiment and she loved the spirituality of it.
“Of course, it was an honour to have her sing. Anything to do with Dolly was an honour.”
O’Connell described Parton as “beyond everything you could imagine”.
“She was very self-deprecating, but she was beyond everything you could imagine,” she said.
“She was just very special and her voice was very, very beautiful and that was just one of her many talents.
“She seemed to be very warm, very kind, smart and very funny.”
Read more:
‘Queen of country music’ Dolly Parton dies aged 80
How Dolly Parton changed young lives in Ireland
In pictures: The life of music legend Dolly Parton