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I’ve never been much of a country music fan, but I’ve always been a Dolly fan. Great songwriter, philanthropist, and seemed like a genuinely nice person. RIP, Dolly, you were one of the greats.

“Dolly Parton's Imagination Library has gifted over 318 million free books to children worldwide since its inception”

Amazing contributions to many aspects of life

To me, apart from her amazing music and philanthropy, what Dolly Parton represents is something that was (emphasis on past tense) at one time truly exceptional about the United States - that someone from a very humble background (poverty in East TN) could have a tremendous impact on the culture of the world - the other example in entertainment being Michael Jackson (from Gary IN).

Admittedly the US music industry was among the few where this phenomenon happened, although definitionally very few reach pop stardom.

In contrast, much of the world exports only its "elite culture", not the culture of common people.

If anyone hasn't listened to "Dolly Parton's America" (https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/dolly-partons-america), I highly recommend it.

Does a great job interviewing Dolly and discussing with her (and those two are around her) who she is, her life events, her thoughts on life. I knew people loved Dolly Parton before I listened but didn't really know why and the podcast helped me understand a bit more of it. It features a LOT of one-on-one time with Dolly in a way that I don't often find docu-series do. It's fantastic!

I put her in my pantheon with Johnny Cash. Turns out Cash introduced her on her Grand Ole Opry debut in 1959, when she was 13. She killed it. Parton said later she was best friends with Johnny and June.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcfyzJW-BA4

I don't think I've ever seen the interwebs talking about one thing as much as right now.

A fun YouTube video of Dolly Parton in an Irish pub: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqdKrv1Vh-g

“Dolly Parton makes an impromptu appearance at Páidí Ó Sé’s pub in Dún Chaoin, Co. Kerry and takes to the stage to entertain the locals.

While on holiday in Kerry, singer Dolly Parton paid a visit to former Kerry footballer Páidí Ó Sé’s pub, where she performs her song ‘Coat of Many Colours’ accompanied by musicians Steve Cooney and Seamus Begley.

Dolly signs off at the end of her performance,

Thank you very much and welcome to Dinglewood

This episode of Cursaí was broadcast on 1 October 1990.”

I am from the wrong continent to be inculcated in country music from an early age, but I read books distributed from her program every week to the niece. So that's probably her more durable contribution to society, I think.

The US's only secular saint. Her memorial service will need to be held in a football stadium to handle the number of people who want to pay their last respects.

Random fact, Dolly the cloned sheep was named after Dolly Parton:

"Dolly is derived from a mammary gland cell and we couldn't think of a more impressive pair of glands than Dolly Parton's."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_(sheep)

In the end I think her generosity outshone her other famous attributes.

I still remember how hard I was struck by the scene in The Orville, where someone from another planet hears a Dolly Parton song playing and asks who it is. He goes on to say, "She speaks with the might of a hundred soldiers!"

She did. She is one of our species' great poets.

She made money doing what she loved, and gave a huge amount of it away to help others. Can't ask for better than that, she will be missed.

What an amazing woman and person in general.

I wish other celebrities did as much as her. Her Imagination Library (https://imaginationlibrary.com) is just one example of her giving back to the community.

The more & More I learned about her over the years, It felt like she just never seamed to give into the system and always found a way to keep give back to the world that corrupts so many.

My mother was a die hard Dolly fan. We even visited Dollywood when I was a kid. One of her favorite movies was with Dolly and Sylvester Stallone called Rhinestone. She watched it repeatedly, and there are quotes from it that are taking up precious space in the ol' memory banks.

If you've never heard the 45 of Jolene played at 33, give it a listen.

We used to play Coat of Many Colors a lot in my house when I was a kid.

My coat of many colors

That my mama made for me

Made only from rags

But I wore it so proudly

Although we had no money

Well, I was rich as I could be

In my coat of many colors

My mama made for me

Outside of her impact on the music industry she also had an outsized impact on families with young children.

She started a charity called Imagination Library [1] that sends free monthly books to children under six in the US, Canada and even expanded to the UK, Australia, and the Republic of Ireland. I will always be grateful for this.

[1] https://imaginationlibrary.com/

RIP. We went to Dollywood last year and I highly recommend it! It was a fun, family-friendly park, and one of the things I was impressed by was how helpful and happy to be there all the workers were. Seemed like a bunch of friendly veterans who took our tickets and let us in.

Feynman was apparently a fan, too. His name for quarks was "partons". She just played the dumb showbiz blonde, or as she said "it takes a lot of money to look this cheap". Others in this discussion have more to say about this, but - she was obviously a super nice and thoughtful person.

Here's my favorite track of hers, Todd Terje mix of "Jolene": https://youtu.be/Xkl36pu8aLY

I grew up in East TN, and this feels like the death of Queen Elizabeth, Mother Teresa, and your favorite fun aunt all rolled up into one. Except no one had a bad word to say about Dolly. She was beloved around the world, but she was an institution back home.

Miley Cyrus is Dolly Parton's god daughter, Miley did a really phenomenal version of “Jolene” - probably my favourite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOwblaKmyVw - She also did a great version together with Dolly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RINEaGraHMc

9 to 5 is such a great song. Adding it as I don't see it linked here. Strong pro-worker message too! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbxUSsFXYo4

It's heartening to see tributes and obits in publications worldwide. All respectful, and genuinely bereft. One obit, though, stood out to me from the dozen or so I've read so far. It's this one [0] in the FT, which I think deserves a wider audience [1].

[0] https://www.ft.com/content/c57569fb-c1ee-476a-aa31-d402e2f3b...

[1] https://archive.is/9nHs1

Dolly Parton was an incredibly savvy business person, talented songwriter and performer, and an outstanding human being. One in a billion.

I will always remember her appearance on the Late Show with Steven Colbert where she moved him to tears with an a cappella song: https://youtu.be/R91VssUiGiY

She was a kind soul and I could sense she was extremely battle hardened, the perfect combo. A true philanthropist. For those who may not know, she originally wrote and sang Whitney Houston's biggest single 'I will always love you'

Dolly Parton's film production company Sandollar produced the 1992 movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer_(film...

End of an era. She was a very active philanthropist and will be dearly missed for all the good she brought to the world.

Shameless plug for the Dolly Parton Book Club, for which you can register your child (even not yet born) and they will send them a free age-appropriate book every month until they turn 5. https://imaginationlibrary.com/

The only thing I have in common with Dolly Parton is living in the USA and I grew up seeing her as a big sister and the best of what we can be. I wish I had 1% of the love she carried with her. This news is much more difficult than I would have expected. I guess that might be specific to 70s and 80s kids.

If you are curious to know more about Dolly, I wholeheartedly recommend the podcast series “Dolly Parton’s America”. One of the best podcast series I’ve listened to and gave me so much respect for Dolly. The world is a little dimmer without her in it!

She still has a hit single dropping in 2045.

R.I.P. Dolly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRPdwWzTTi8

I was in awe of her books for kids program.

Simple, direct philanthropy that helps any/all kids:

https://imaginationlibrary.com/

Very sad to hear. Rest in peace.

I was at Dollywood a few weeks ago. I highly recommend a visit if you ever get the chance. She has a fantastic legacy in more ways than one.

If anyone wants to listen to an underrated Dolly track, my rec is Silver Dagger.

I'm going home, I'm going home...

Long As I Can See The Light: https://youtu.be/tMgyIUvz9ak?si=zZq0yHRHmGl7LsFB

You know how, sometimes, you downright think "that is impossible!", with certain people, when you hear of their death. And then, of course, you realize ...

This.-

Fun fact: Dolly, the cloned sheep, was named after Dolly Parton. The sheep was cloned from a mammary gland cell, so...

She always seemed so full of life, it's difficult to believe she's gone.

I originally had no idea Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" was a Dolly Parton cover.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has been gifting free books to kids from birth to age 5 for over three decades: https://imaginationlibrary.com/

Her father couldn't read so she built a program that mails 3.5 million books to children every month.

That's an amazing contribution to literacy

Wow. I knew she was close but still. She has always held her in a special place in my heart as I am sure so many else do. I hope there is a national day of mourning. And parades. She would've like parades

Her playing at Glastonbury here in the UK only seems like the other day, but I just checked and it's been _12 years_! She played her most popular songs and the audience treated her like the star she was. What an incredible, talented, kind-hearted woman. An inspiration to so many for all the best reasons.

Others have mentioned Sierra Ferrel - she seems the obvious native wildlife in the gap in the ecosystem left by this passing.

And Sierra is a very sharp and kind human being from what I can tell. We've had the good fortune to hang out a few times at IBMA and once in Tennessee. She has always been very kind and curious with my son, and she seems to have a very inspired few of the future of the music "industry".

I don't know her super well, but she definitely runs in my circles of friends who are interested in a radical rethinking (for many of us, an abolitionist view) of IP. I have no idea her views in particular, but it's notable to see someone arise from that scene (at least as I perceive it) to such prominence.

I don't recall if I've spoken to her about IPFS - I think I actually have - but it's an interesting synchrony to have Dolly leave us (and for many of us, to institutionally turn to Sierra for inspiration) and for IPFS lose its primary maintaining org in the same day.

It's obvious that the long-term future of traditional music is as the lifeblood of peer-to-peer topologies and communities.

Here's Sierra summoning the energy of Dolly last Sept:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeV6-hTLe6U

I'm sure she'll do a generationally-relevant tribute in the next week or two, as will Billy Strings.

(Reminder: Both Billy and Sierra have released their entire catalog DRM-free: https://pickipedia.xyz/wiki/DRM-free)

In an odd coincidence, Jolene by Dolly Parton played on YouTube Music as I drove home with my daughter. When we got home, my wife told me Dolly Parton had died. I don't listen to much of her though I'm fond of this song, and we get the Imagination Library books. Seems like she was good person, and a great singer and songwriter.

My daughter loves Dolly from her books and I love reading to her. What a win win, RIP Dolly you are a class act.

Somehow "USS Dolly Parton" has a bit of a ring to it for the next US warship after the "USS Dorie Miller".

Amazing human who popularized the amazing Country Music. Listening to Country Music radio all day as respects.

Dolly was one of the unequivocal good ones. Damn girl, RIP.

Sad, but she was beloved and lived a great live. She was successful, but gave back a lot in her local community.

Stars who were born into poverty sometimes struggle with being generous (Charlie Chaplin for example). But that certainly didn't seem to be an issue for Dolly. What a life.

I found this remix music video strangely hypnotic when I happened across it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExeQM08TwbE

My wife is at an eye appointment. I have no idea what to expect when she gets home. After Dolly's super bowl performance my wife (and her mother) were crying at just the thought of her passing away.

Sad news - she was a treasure.

I will be crying 9-5 today.

I guess this is why English Wikipedia was down. It's back up now.

One of the most generous music artists to have lived. Dolly's legacy will greatly outlive her.

The woman wrote Jolene. If that doesn’t get you to heaven then nothing will.

An icon, one of the best of us and a true one of one

off-topic here

She was truly a gem. Beautiful inside and out. May she rest in peace.

We need more celebrities to step up like Dolly. You will be missed.

I knew she had been sick recently but always assumed she'd bounce back.

We're worse off.

I saw Dolly at Hardly Strictly in 2005. She was great.

She was such an impressively kind person.

Heartbreaking. Rest in peace Dolly.

She was, I believe, the largest or one of the largest private donors to the moderna covid vaccine

Here is her families statement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9govup-IG3c

RIP. One of the last real ones.

RIP Dolly, she was a good one.

I remember in the early-80s, maybe 5th grade, being taught fractions, specifically the "Dolly Parton fraction", where the numerator is larger than the denominator. I've got a feeling they don't teach that anymore.

Dolly was a force.

People suspected the health news in the last ~months before to be more serious than initially alleged to not be serious at all. Now they were confirmed.

Of all her songs I think Jolene is by far the most interesting. Several copied the song, such as Miley Cyrus, and while not bad, it seems to not quite capture the underlying idea of the song. I have a hard time Miley being as plausible in the "please don't steal my man just because you can" compared to Dolly. It's like a whole generation in between and the lyrics just don't really fit much at all to Miley, even if one reasons that it is the melody that is more important - but even then, Miley's voice seems to fit to other songs better than happy-go-lucky country songs.

Make time to listen to Dolly Parton's America podcast:

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/dolly-partons-america

She did so much for children's literacy, underserved children have benefited from her reading program. I support her book club because it makes humans smarter. The world really lost a great spirit.

Dolly Parton seemed nice on that episode of The Orville.

very, very sad. she was such a good person in this age of trump especially in the country music scene