Farewell, Dolly!

Aug 27, 2026

The passing away of Dolly Parton seemed a good time to put a story in my occasional “Hope for Hard Times” column. It may even be an auspicious time, given that a tropical storm broke out on this week of her passing that got named “Dolly”—not by a choice to create a tribute but because that name was selected for it many months ago, as all storm names are laid out on an alphabetical list months in advance of tropical storm season, and Dolly just happened to die right when her storm came to life.

Dolly Parton kind of was a storm—a tour-de-force at least. She was a nice storm, but I mean what a whirlwind of ambition, positive energy and accomplishment her life was. Yet, her lifetime swirls of grand activities began in poverty, as Dolly often humbly described. She even many times modestly called herself an expensive, trailer-trash kind of gal! That’s what I loved about her—the way she always lightheartedly joked about herself as she proceeded to accomplish great things.

She would have easily become a billionaire years ago with all of her earthly and highly successful enterprises from music to films to Dollywood and many other things, but she chose not to. She enjoyed luxuries, but she also gave lavishly, so that she never accumulated her first billion dollars. She kept enough to have fun and to invest in more enterprises, but gave a great deal away all along the way to help others less fortunate.

She always remained endearingly humble for all of her accomplishments, beauty and fortune, finding it just as interesting to talk about her hillbilly side that was still part of her soul as the bountiful side of her life. That could be seen in how she lived happily with her husband for many decades, though he, as I understand, remained a truck driver who didn’t seem to want anything to do with the limelight that flooded most of her life. She talked about him like he was her stable and friendly tether to reality. Her rock.

I think Dolly’s relationship with her husband, Carl, was so close and important that his death in the spring of 2025 might explain why her own health finally started to diminish over the year that followed until she passed away. Prior to that, I don’t recall ever hearing about her having major health problems. It reminds me of a friend who was much older than I was who was a close companion with his wife for many decades. When he died, she, who had been in good health all of her life, passed away at his funeral right as it began. The pastor and family paused the funeral for an hour or so, asking people to wait, then came back and announced they were going to continue by spontaneously changing to a double funeral for both of them right then and there. That is testimony to a deep and enduring bond that transcends the grave.

Dolly was also a liberated woman, but she never talked like a man-hating feminist. In fact, she would often say outright that she loved men. “Sure you have to put the odd one in his place once in awhile, but I love men” is the kind of thing she would say when asked.

She loved her almost miraculous figure, too. She had fun with it. She played it to her advantage. She said she was glad for what she was blessed with, laughed about it and rolled with humor about it. She practically fell over backward laughing when Johnny Carson said of her revealing neckline, “I’d give a week’s salary just to have a look down there.” She wrote a song among her thousands of songs just for Johnny and let him know she thought the world of him and loved being on his show and was thankful for the help he gave early in her career.

She never let any man (or woman) hold her back. She did what she wanted to do the way she wanted to do it. She ran her own show. She did it with panache in her own trailer-flash style. She even payed a lead role in the famous film with a feminist message, 9 to 5, but it was all done with a lot of fun and a lot of laughs, nothing mean or preachy. And that kind of attitude is refreshing in a time we live in like today where one of our news stories is the widening gender gap in Gen Z.

An article titled “Peak Feminism” says that only 35% of Gen Z women have a positive view of men. That’s a sad statement about women that says those in the other 65% have become the very thing they declared men were when they all started talking about misogynists. It stands out because the men in that Gen Z group have a contrastingly higher opinion of their female counterparts than the women have of men. They are less misogynistic than the women are misandristic (to use the corollary but seldom heard term for women who scorn men). Here’s how much so: 72% of US men under age 30 say they have a positive view of women. Only 50% of women that age can say the same thing about men. For women 25 and under, the percentage falls even further, down to 35%. As a result, Gen Z is mating a lot less and producing fewer children.

Now, if you’re a woman who thinks I’m wrong in saying the majority of women (not all, just the 65%) in Gen Z are misandrists, then ask yourself this simple question, and ask it honestly: How do you feel about men who frequently claim that women are to blame for most of men’s problems? You probably think they are misogynists. Flip that around to women who frequently claim men are to blame for most of women’s problems, and I rest my case.

That’s what I like about Dolly. She lived a liberated life in that she reached for the brass ring wherever she wanted to. She didn’t let men or women hold her down, and some women were as hostile to her as any man because of her breasts and her ample but not risqué display of them due the apparent envy or competitive drive of some women to cut down the competition. (Women can be a lot worse to women about their bodies than men are.) She just did what she was going to do, and treated both genders kindly almost all the time. She didn’t waste time or energy grousing about how the other gender held her back. She moved forward with making a fortune, just reaching and going and doing and being. And I think that is a great attitude to live with.

She seemed to be truly joyful most of the time and to enjoy life. She also didn’t let anyone tell her how to be a Christian, such as how to dress the part by being less sexually appealing in her dress or spending less on her looks or her wardrobe. She didn’t do augmentation, she claimed, but she did admit that she had gotten “a little nip and tuck here and there” to put things back into place where God meant them to be. Yet, Dolly lived, I think, an exemplary Christian life by treating others with dignity, helping many, many people get started in music, giving to the poor, singing Christmas Carols and gospel songs, though most of her music was completely secular love songs.

She also talked about how her belief in Jesus empowered her life with hope that helped her rise above the hard times she had been born into, but she never preached or judged others. Her approach to living the Christian faith kept her positive and focused on building the right kinship of joyful relationships with men and women wherever she could. She made the mold for herself, she didn’t try to fit anyone else’s mold or fit anyone into hers.

Her nephew Bryan Seaver, speaking on behalf of the Parton and Owens families, said their grief was tempered by their Christian belief that Parton had entered heaven.
“Sadness lies with us, not with Dolly,” Seaver said. “Dolly has lived in the light and is in the arms of Jesus,” adding that she was “surely met by Carl, her parents, and countless others who have watched her and longed for her to meet them in the heavens….”
“Dolly was a farmer, just like her daddy,” he said. “He farmed the soil. She farmed songs and happiness.”
“A belief in God is essential,” she once said. “You have to believe in something bigger than yourself. We grew up believing that through God all things are possible….”
Her parents had little money, but music and faith were central to family life. Her maternal grandfather, Jake Robert Owens, was a preacher at the House of Prayer, the small mountain church where Parton worshipped, and she began singing hymns and playing guitar in church as a child….
“I pray every day. I pray about everything,” she added. “I ask God to lead me and guide me in all the decisions I make—and to bring all the good and right people into my life and to let me do something to glorify God and uplift mankind.”

Said one of her longtime collaborators, Zach Williams, with whom she won a Grammy as recently as 2021,

“Dolly, your songs, your faith, and the way you loved people impacted me more than you probably ever will know,” he wrote. “You showed all of us that success didn’t have to change your heart, and that we could use what God gave us to make life a little better for somebody else.”

Her friend Reba McEntire wrote the following tribute,

Dolly, thank you for all the wonderful things you did for us here on earth… Your love, your music and you gave so much with your huge huge heart. There will never ever be another you.
“Thank you, Lord, for Dolly,” she added. “She’s gonna have a blast in heaven singing all her favorite songs with all her family and friends who have gone on before her.”
“Dolly Parton’s legacy is not celebrity, but humanity,” said Kyle Young, chief executive officer of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
Young described her as “a champion of equality and literacy” who shared her success with others.
“She came from poverty to become the most important native of Tennessee,” he said. “She shared her fortunes for the good of all of us, and shared her soul in every note she sang.”

And that love of life, love toward others, great generosity, and living her faith abundantly and openly her own way, not as others said she should live, is why Dolly was so loved by America that President Trump ordered flags to be flown at half mast this week in honor of her, as one would treat a great American hero. Just like she never got into the battles of feminist politics, but lived a kind, laughing and gently liberated life, she never got into partisan politics either. So, even Trump had no reason to hate her.

“Rest in Peace, Dolly!” the president added. “The World loves you….”
Tributes crossed America’s increasingly bitter political divide, reflecting Parton’s unusual ability to remain widely admired by Republicans and Democrats.

Now, the experts say “hostile wind shear [from the El Niño] may threaten [the] survival [of Dolly as the storm] nears the Caribbean.” I would say, “Don’t underestimate her. If the storm lives up to her namesake, nothing is going to tear her down or stop her. She’ll rise above it all and show the rest of the world how it’s done … flamboyantly in a whirlwind, Dolly style!”

So, Farewell, Dolly! God loves you. So do we!