RIP Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton has had serious health problems recently, so the news is not totally surprising. We just don't like to hear it. She was eighty years old.  

My mom listened to a country music radio station while we grew up. So I had exposure to country music while growing up in New York City. I like various country music singers. 

I like Dolly Parton. Erik Loomis provides a largely positive obituary here, including honoring her talent and business savvy. He references a 1960s song about a pregnant woman committing suicide after being abandoned. 

She was a feminist. One thing he notes is that she did not speak out against her state's anti-trans legislation.

Parton is regularly cited as an LGBTQ ally. She was careful not to bluntly oppose certain laws. But people knew where she stood. In the 1980s, she said this:

“I got a huge gay following and some really macho-looking women,” Parton told Andy Warhol in a conversation for a 1984 Interview cover story. “To me, people are people. … Many of my friends are gay, male and female. I don’t judge people. I don’t care what people do in their bedrooms and people shouldn’t care what I do in mine.”

The anti-LGBTQ movement is based on hate, lack of empathy, and scare tactics. People, however, overall found same sex marriage not a big deal. Parton was accepting, loving, and knew it was not a big scary thing. 

When asked, early on, she made jokes about gays now having the same problems as straights. [I heard a form of this on today's Gay USA episode.] 

Of course, she didn't really think marriage was bad. She was married for almost sixty years. 

Dolly was pro-labor, including all those people required to produce her music. Not just for one film.

She was loving, funny, and honored by people she worked with. As the actress Daryl Hannah noted on Bluesky:

I could tell you stories & you would love ‘em, but they wouldn’t make you love her more than you already do. We will always love her.

Her reading charity is well-cited. Her family recommended people donate to it instead of flowers. 

She also was pro-vaccine:

When the COVID-19 pandemic upended lives around the world, country music legend Dolly Parton found her own way to lead in a crisis.

Her $1 million donation to Vanderbilt University Medical Center to help expedite development of the Moderna vaccine gained international recognition. A Guardian correspondent even suggested naming the shot, "The Dolly."

Parton didn't stop there. Photographers captured her on March 2, 2021, donning a face mask and getting the vaccine in a public show of trust. During a scary and confusing crisis, she was a voice of calm, singing improvised lyrics of "Vaccine" to the tune of her megahit "Jolene."

Trump offerred her a Medal of Freedom. She begged off, concerned about traveling during COVID and other reasons. Later, Dolly was wary about Biden giving her one. It might be seen as "political" if she accepted. She had red and blue fans. 

He announced flags will be flown at half-mast in her honor. 

The actor Tim Curry also died. Many honor his many roles, especially his gender bending role in the Rocky Horror Picture Show. He was gloriously "weird." 

Dolly Parton was pretty outrageous too. Let us allow their spirit to live on, even as we wish "another 80-year-old died." Anyway, I don't think Dolly would have liked people saying that.