Dolly Parton

Dolly Rebecca Parton was born on January 19, 1946, in a one-room cabin on the banks of the Little Pigeon River in Pittman Center, Tennessee, the fourth of twelve children born to Avie Lee Caroline (née Owens) and Robert Lee Parton Sr. Her family later moved to a two-room cabin and farm on Locust Ridge, near Sevierville, Tennessee. Her father worked as a sharecropper and later tended a small tobacco farm, supplementing the family's income with construction work. Parton has credited her father's business instincts and her mother's family, who carried Welsh ancestry and a tradition of Smoky Mountain ballads, as the twin foundations of her career. Her earliest public performances took place in the Church of God congregation her grandfather Jake Robert Owens pastored, beginning at age six. By age ten she was appearing on The Cas Walker Show on both WIVK Radio and WBIR-TV in Knoxville, and at thirteen she recorded the single "Puppy Love" on Goldband Records and appeared at the Grand Ole Opry, where she met Johnny Cash.

After graduating from Sevier County High School in 1964, Parton moved to Nashville the following day. She signed with Combine Publishing and, working frequently with her uncle Bill Owens, established herself first as a songwriter. Their collaborations produced two Top 10 country hits for Bill Phillips, "Put It Off Until Tomorrow" and "The Company You Keep," both in 1966, as well as Skeeter Davis's number 11 hit "Fuel to the Flame" in 1967. Songs she wrote during this period were also recorded by Kitty Wells and Hank Williams Jr. She signed with Monument Records in 1965, where she was initially marketed as a pop singer, but after "Put It Off Until Tomorrow" reached number six on the country chart, the label allowed her to record country material. Her first credited country single, "Dumb Blonde," reached number 24 in 1967, followed by "Something Fishy" at number 17, both appearing on her debut album, Hello, I'm Dolly, released that same year.

That debut launched a recording career spanning six decades and encompassing 50 studio albums. Parton has composed more than 3,000 songs, among them "Jolene," "Coat of Many Colors," and "I Will Always Love You," which topped the U.S. country chart twice and became an international hit for Whitney Houston. She has placed 25 singles at number one on the Billboard country charts, a record for a female artist tied with Reba McEntire, and has accumulated 44 career Top 10 country albums, a record for any artist. Her worldwide record sales exceed 100 million, and her catalog includes numerous RIAA-certified gold, platinum, and multi-platinum certifications. Her 49th solo studio album, Rockstar, released in 2023, peaked at number three on the Billboard 200, becoming her highest-charting album on that chart. She has received eleven Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011, as well as three Emmy Awards.

As a film actress, Parton starred in the 1980 comedy 9 to 5, in which she also performed the title song, and in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas in 1982, earning Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress for each film. Her subsequent screen credits include Rhinestone (1984), Steel Magnolias (1989), Straight Talk (1992), and Joyful Noise (2012). She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1984. Additional honors include the National Medal of Arts in 2004, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2006, and inclusion on Time magazine's Time 100 list of the world's 100 most influential people in 2021. She was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1986. In 2025, she received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, an honorary Oscar, from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Parton extended her work on the material from 9 to 5 to the Broadway stage, serving as the book writer and composer-lyricist for the musical adaptation. The production earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Original Score Written for the Theatre in 2009 and a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Lyrics the same year. Outside of performance, Parton co-owns The Dollywood Company, which operates the Dollywood theme park, the Splash Country water park, and dinner theater venues including The Dolly Parton Stampede and Pirates Voyage. She also founded the Dollywood Foundation, a philanthropic organization focused on education and poverty relief in East Tennessee.