A true rags to riches story, she was born in a one-room cabin \u2026 the fourth of 12 children.<\/p>\n
I spent an \u201cEvening with Dolly Parton\u201d when I was just 9 years old. I was already a fan of hers and excited for my very first concert. My mom and her boyfriend took me and my brother to the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester, Minnesota, on June 5, 1979. I was also preparing for my 10th birthday coming up in July.<\/p>\n
She was touring and promoting her new album \u201cGreat Balls of Fire.\u201d I didn\u2019t know any of her newer songs, but I loved her story-telling tunes \u201cJolene\u201d and \u201cMe and Little Andy\u201d along with the power ballad, \u201cI Will Always Love You.\u201d<\/p>\n
The arena was filled with anticipation while people were still finding their seats, my heart was racing when the lights dimmed. We could see shadows on the stage and then the spotlight came on \u2026 there she was. Dressed in what I thought was the most beautiful green dress I had ever seen with her towering bouffant, perfectly curled platinum blonde hair.<\/p>\n
Other than continued excitement \u2026 Unfortunately, that is all I remember of my first concert.<\/p>\n
Beyond the stage, I liked her acting performances as well. One of my favorite movies with the country icon is called \u201cRhinestone.\u201d The movie features not only Dolly, but also Rocky\/Rambo fame actor, Sylvester Stallone. The movie was deemed a massive failure but I highly recommend it. I found it entertaining and at times quite hilarious. At times, I even still repeat some of the movie lines \u2026 albeit nobody knows what I\u2019m talking about.<\/p>\n
It was her genuine warmth that truly captured people\u2019s attention. Parton started a legacy with several charitable initiatives and also donated millions of dollars to other charities. A true humanitarian.<\/p>\n
As an artist, she was immensely versatile. I especially enjoyed her duets with Kenny Rogers. Along with other country stars like her goddaughter Miley Cyrus, she has also performed with pop, soul and rap artists.<\/p>\n
She had a rock star spirit and performed with a ton of energy. In 2022, Parton was even inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. During the ceremony, she performed “Jolene” backed by a rock-and-roll supergroup which included Rob Halford of Judas Priest, pop icon P!nk, folk singer Brandi Carlile, Sheryl Crow, Pat Benatar and the Eurythmics. After that, she released her first-ever, completely rock-and-roll album.<\/p>\n
The world lost Dolly Parton Aug. 25, 2026. Rest easy Dolly, \u201cI’ll think of you each step of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFind out who you are. And do it on purpose.” \u2013 Dolly Parton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A true rags to riches story, she was born in a one-room cabin \u2026 the fourth of 12…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,32374,11301,9,24,63,299,28611],"class_list":["post-334568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-columnists","tag-free","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-opinion","tag-psa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}