I wasn’t always as big a Dolly fan as I am now. I’m old enough to remember her from the Porter Wagoner show, when she was just getting started. I was a kid then, and I liked her okay because my parents did, I guess.
We all liked to hear her sing Coat of Many Colors, especially my mom.
When I entered my edgier teen years, I guess I wouldn’t have been caught dead listening to her music, not that I wanted to. She was a little too sugary-sweet for me. Her songs a little too sentimental. She was too phony-looking.
But I have since come to greatly admire the woman. I’ve been listening to her new Holly Dolly Christmas album today, breaking my own rule about intentionally listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving.
Many of her songs are still sappy and silly, but they make me smile. That’s just Dolly having a good time.
Many of her songs are also heartfelt songs of faith.
I think my opinion of Dolly began to change when she sang “He’s Alive” on one of the major country awards shows. That was probably 20 years ago.
I don’t think I’ll ever forget that performance.
Performance is probably not the best way to describe it. It was more of a from the tips of her toes to the top of her head to the depths of her soul expression of worship.
I knew then that Dolly meant every word of that song. I had goosebumps all over my body.
My opinion of her continued to grow when we began to occasionally take our kids to Dollywood.
Sure, she’s made a fortune from that place, but the whole place is Dolly’s declaration of “I’m so proud of my Tennessee mountain home, and I want to you to love it too!”
Then, there is the Imagination Library, which began with her distributing books to children in her home county and has grown to include several countries. Almost 150 million books have been donated!
Dolly donated and raised millions to help those who lost their homes to those devastating Tennessee fires a few years ago.
I didn’t think I could become much more of a fan girl of Dolly Parton’s, but there was a short news segment on tonight that said Dolly is being praised for the million dollar donation she made to Vanderbilt University, which has played a part in developing one of the two most promising vaccines for Covid-19.
I am not ashamed to say I shed a few tears.
Why, oh, why, Dolly, did you not run for president?! Would you consider a run in 2024?
Dolly’s star power just keeps growing. Besides her new album, she has a new book called Songteller. She’s as popular with millennials as she is with old fogeys like me. Kids love her too.
I expect we will be seeing a lot of Dolly this Christmas, with her new book and album coming out.
That's okay. In this dark time, the world needs more of what she's got. Dolly is “letting her little light shine.”
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