A photo Stephanie Davis took of the Dolly Parton mural by Colton Valentine in downtown Knoxville Tennessee last year. -STEPHANIE DAVIS / FLORIDA WEEKLY

The world became a lot less sparkly last week when we lost Dolly Parton — a woman that I believe inspired so many other women by the way she showed up for people. Dolly was about as sweet, sassy and as saintly as they come and there will never be another like her.

I remember being a little girl in the 1970s watching the Porter Wagoner show on TV. I didn’t watch for Porter, I didn’t even like country music — I watched for the pretty girl with the platinum hair that was styled so high, it seemed to tower all the way to heaven, giving meaning to “the higher the hair, the closer to God” — an idiom she often used. I was wowed by everything about Dolly. Her sweet voice, her honey-buttered Tennessee twang, her pretty smile, her famous beauty mark, and her impossibly long red-painted nails. There was just something so special about her and even at age 7, I knew she had to get off the show and become a star.

In the 80s, I fell in love with Dolly all over again when she played a saucy secretary in “9 to 5” who helped her fellow female coworkers get the best of the chauvinistic, butt-pinching, condescending boss who made their lives so difficult. I was still only in my teens, but I had never seen women stand up to a powerful man like that. It was empowering how Dolly helped us go from feeling like we had to accept a toxic workplace filled with sexual harassment to knowing that it wasn’t right, or fair, and we could stand up to it. And in the late-80s, she gave us Truvy the hairdresser in “Steel Magnolias” who turned her garage into a beauty parlor and demonstrated how very important female friendships are as she showed up for her gal pals. Plus, no one ever said the line, “The nicest thing I can say about her is all her tattoos are spelled correctly” better than Dolly.

It seemed to me that Dolly was always there and always doing amazing things for people who needed help. Whether it was putting books in the hands of children, or donating money to the families affected by the Gatlinburg fires in 2016 by making sure that every displaced household got $1,000 a month for 6 months. Dolly’s Tennessee mountain home meant the world to her. She loved her birthplace in the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee and did so much for the economy in that region with both Dollywood and with two resort hotels (Dollywood’s DeamMore and Dollywood’s HeartSong). My husband Todd is also from East Tennessee and when we go up there to visit family we can’t help but notice all the Dolly tributes in the area. There are murals, art work, and even a bronze statue. Todd is in the hospitality business and he almost scored a management position at Dollywood’s DreamMore Resort and I was so excited that he might have Dolly as his big boss. I fantasized that she might meet him one day and have us to dinner with she and Carl, her husband. My imagination tends to run pretty wild — but so did Dolly’s and it all worked out pretty well for her.

Thank you, Dolly — for the inspiration, the voice, and the sparkle. We will always love you.

A sign from the yoga gods

My summer hibernation is about to stop. I’m fine to be outdoors during golden hour and early evening, but mornings are a struggle in this heat. I was recently reminded how much I used to love outdoor yoga at the Alliance for the Arts when I ran into my friend, yoga instructor Nicole Michaelson. She’s always such a bright light and she’s still teaching every Saturday morning at the Alliance Green Market starting at 9:30 a.m. — and I’m convinced seeing her was my sign to stop sofa-rotting and get out there and do something good for myself. Put in on your calendar, it’s only $10, and I promise — you’ll be glad you went!

 

Stephanie Davis is a recovering girl-about-town formerly known as the Downtown Diva. A nearly native Southwest Floridian, when she’s not photographing events for Florida Weekly, she’s perfectly content to stay at home binging Netflix with husband, Todd, and four cats Tennessee, Lilibet, Jack, and Baby.