Country diva Dolly Parton is an absolute legend. If you still need convincing, our collection of facts will have you singing her praises in no time…
Dolly Parton has been crowned a Guinness World Records icon for her stash of 11 gongs, as the Daily Star revealed this week. The country legend has been making chart history since her first single came out in 1959.
Then just 13 years old, she would go on to release 66 studio albums – more than any other female country singer. Now we’ve worked 9 to 5 to give you 15 fascinating Dolly facts…
1. She was born Dolly Rebecca Parton in the tiny village of Pittman Center in Tennessee, US on January 19, 1946. The fourth of 12 children, she has seven surviving brothers and sisters.
2. Dolly says her parents, farmer Robert and homemaker Avie Lee Parton, were “dirt poor.” They had to pay the missionary who delivered her with a sack of cornmeal.
3. But Dolly believes she has her mum to thank for her extraordinary musical talents. She plays at least six instruments, including the piano, guitar, banjo, recorder, dulcimer and saxophone.
4. The singer was married to husband Carl Dean, who died aged 82 in March, for nearly 60 years. They met outside the Wishy Washy laundrette in Nashville, Tennessee in 1964.
5. One of her biggest hits, I Will Always Love You, was covered by Whitney Houston for 1992 weepie The Bodyguard. It’s not actually a love song – it’s about her falling-out with mentor Porter Wagoner.
6. Dolly had previously turned down Elvis Presley to cover the song. The star says she was forced to say no when his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, demanded half the songwriting rights.
7. The singer is so committed to her high-maintenance look, she sleeps wearing a full face of makeup. She said in 2019: “You never know if you’re going to be somewhere in a hotel and there’s going to be a fire.”
8. She also claims to own at least 365 wigs – one for every day of the year. The 79-year-old once said: “People always ask me how long it takes to do my hair. I don’t know, I’m never there.”
9. Incredibly, she once lost a Dolly Parton lookalike contest held at a Los Angeles bar. “I got the least applause,” she says.
10. The world’s first cloned sheep, created from an adult mammary cell, was named as a tribute to Dolly’s famous curves. The star later quipped: “There’s no such thing as baaad publicity.”
11. Dolly owns her own theme park – Dollywood, in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee – but says she’s never been tempted to try any of the rides.
12. While making festive movie Christmas On The Square for Netflix, Dolly saved the life of nine-year-old co-star Talia Hill. She pulled the child actor out of the way of an oncoming car.
13. Inspired by her dad, who never learned to read, she opened Dolly’s Imagination Library in 1995. The organisation has since sent more than 120million books to children worldwide.
14. At the height of the Covid pandemic, Dolly donated $1million (around £750,000) to help fund the development of the Moderna vaccine.
15. And according to honorary goddaughter Miley Cyrus, the musical diva only communicates by fax. Miley adds: “She has a phone – she just doesn’t use it.”
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
