Dear Dolly Parton,
I know now that you’ll never see this but nonetheless, I must write it anyway …
Dolly Parton was larger than life. She was fun, kind and proud of who she was. Growing up, I didn’t personally identify with country music, but there’s just something about Parton’s 2008 “Backwoods Barbie” album that just gets to me.
I must admit, when Parton passed on Aug. 25, 2026, I felt a little bit of sparkle fade away. You never realize how bright a person shimmers until their light begins to dim.
Dolly Rebecca Parton was born on Jan. 19, 194,6 in Sevier County, Tennessee. Parton lived out her youth in a small one-bedroom home in the Smoky Mountains. There, she was one of many children, 12 to be exact, and from this environment, Parton drew a lot of her inspiration for her art.
Encouraged by her mother at a young age to pursue music, Parton packed her bags, moved to Nashville, met her soon to be husband Carl Dean (who Parton married in 1966) and signed her first record deal with Monument Records.
Parton admired beauty in all things. The patches in an old jacket, a spot on the eye of a dog, the bloom of magnolias in May. Parton never failed to notice the small things in life. Even the ones that seemed to hurt.
Whether it be describing the beauty of a woman she is fearful of losing her husband to like she does in her 1974 hit “Jolene,” or describing the patches that covered the holes in her childhood jacket as being sewn together with love in her 1971 song “Coat of many Colors.” Parton knew how to take even the saddest of stories and make them feel like a warm cozy hug.
On top of all of this, Parton had the most wonderful awareness of her own beauty. “It’s hard to be a diamond in a rhinestone world,” she said. Parton led her life with confidence and self-worth. Inspiring so many others to live in their truth, the same as she did.Â
The first time I heard the name Dolly Parton, she was standing next to Queen Latifah in the 2012 film “Joyful Noise.” It wasn’t until 2018, when I was watching the film “Dumplin” on Netflix that I finally saw Parton as more than a country singer with a thick accent and the biggest hair I’ve ever seen.Â
Parton was a woman. A woman with soul, grace and purpose, full of the same things I saw in myself. It’s funny to feel so attached to a person I’ve never met, but Parton was different, something inside me knew I couldn’t miss a single second of the Dolly Parton show. Every moment she performed on stage or acted in a movie was like magic to me.Â
I don’t know if I have much else to say, but I know I will miss her. To me, Dolly Parton was like glitter. No matter how much I vacuum, sweep or mop, there’s always a little bit of her left everywhere. I see Parton in the Tennessee mountains, the smell of pecan pie, the constellations on a dark night and in the faces of women and girls who have so much to fight and live for.Â
Thank you Dolly Parton, thank you for everything.Â