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The Indelible Dolly Parton
By Jesse Monteagudo
Photos: Dolly.net
Of all musical genres, country music is the one that's most willing to
accommodate female stars. The greatest of them are the stuff that country
dreams are made of: Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Dottie West, Tammy Wynette
and Reba McEntire.
Though a case could be made for any of these ladies, in my
opinion Dolly Parton is the greatest of them all. "Dolly Parton is the most
famous, most universally beloved, and most widely respected woman who has
ever emerged from country music, a role model not only for other singers and
songwriters, but for working women everywhere," wrote Mary A. Bufwack and
Robert K. Oermann in Finding Her Voice, the definitive study of women in
country music.
"Hers is a true Horatio Alger, up-by-your-bootstraps success
story--Daisy Mae Yokum of Dogpatch who turned into Mae West of Hollywood, a
mountain butterfly who soared with eagles."
Like country music itself, Dolly Parton's career is torn between her
down-home roots and her mainstream aspirations, between Daisy Mae Yokum and
Mae West. Bufwack and Oermann described her public image as
"possum-stew-and-Dom-Perignon", while Parton herself called it "burlap and
satin".
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Her famous looks, which influenced her career as much as her music
did, was a deliberate ploy to win attention from a general public that still
thinks of country singers as illiterate hillbillies. Dolly wants to be
heard, and if it takes a big blond wig and big tits to do it so be it:
"It costs a lot to make a person look this cheap," she admits. Parton's Southern
floozy look also satisfies a deep-seated need to be wildly extravagant, born
perhaps of the singer's childhood poverty: "If I were a man I would have been
a drag queen," she adds.
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Related Features from the GayToday Archive:
Country Music's Lesbian & Gay Artists
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Finding the Redneck Within
Dusty Springfield: The Look of Love
Related Sites:
Dolly Parton
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Still, there's more to Dolly Parton than meets the eye. "Parton's appeal
came through a fortuitous combination of physical attractiveness, singing
talent, and a genius for song composition," wrote Bill C. Malone in his
classic Country Music U.S.A.
Her distinctive, "clear as a bell" soprano,
which takes us back beyond Hank Williams's nasal twang to the original Carter
Family, combines with a unique gift for writing songs to make Parton a
musical force to be reckoned with. And while Dolly's "caricature busty
blonde" looks are definitely pre-feminist, she rightly became a role model
for women during the early days of the modern women's movement.
"In contrast to the often tragic and always exhausting lives of so many female country
singers, Dolly Parton somehow always retained an impression of being mistress
of her own destiny, adapting, but never compromising, her style and material
to suit the demands made of her," wrote Charlie Gillett in The Sound of the
City.
Cline, Lynn and Wynette all had to endure drunk, abusive and
unfaithful husbands. Parton's husband, on the other hand, is Carl Dean, who
stays in the background and lets his wife lead her own life.
No matter how far away she's gotten, Dolly Rebecca Parton always returns
to her "Tennessee mountain home". She was born on January 19, 1946, in a
proverbial log cabin near Sevierville, the fourth of twelve children. While
still a child, Dolly began singing in churches and local theaters and (in
1959) on Knoxville radio.
In 1964 she graduated from high school--the first
in her family to do so--and moved to Nashville. By 1966 she had married
Carl Dean, signed with Monument Records, and had her first hit (the
ironically-titled "Dumb Blonde").
She also caught the eye of established country singer Porter Wagoner, who
hired Dolly to replace Norma Jean as the "girl singer" on his syndicated TV show.
As part of her partnership with Wagoner, Parton signed with his record label,
RCA, in 1967. In 1969 she joined the Grand Ole Opry.
The years of the Wagoner-Parton partnership, which she insists was
platonic but which he claims had a sexual dimension, were also her most
productive. In addition to a string of duets with Porter, Dolly ruled the
country charts with a series of songs she wrote that pushed the boundaries
of country music: "Just Because I'm a Woman" (1967), "Joshua" (1971), "Coat
of Many Colors" (1972), "Jolene" (1973) and, most famously, "I Will Always
Love You" (1974).
By 1977, Parton was ready to take off. She dropped
Wagoner like a hot potato, hired the openly-gay Sandy Gallin as her personal
manager, and "went Hollywood" with the pop tune "Here You Come Again".
Though Parton protested that "I am not leaving country music. All I want is
a chance to do everything I want to do in life," her down-home country fans
would not forgive her. Never again would Parton dominate the country charts
the way she did during the first half of the 1970's.
The 1980's were a mixed bag for Parton. She had two number one pop hits:
"9 to 5" in 1981 and "Islands in the Stream" (a duet with Kenny Rogers) in
1983. Intent on becoming a movie star, she starred in 1980's 9 to 5 and in
1982's The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
Though the tabloids hinted at
a romance with co-star Burt Reynolds, Parton protested that the only things
the two had in common were the fact that "we both wear wigs, high heels, and
have a roll around the middle."
In 1986 Dolly left RCA for Columbia Records
and opened "Dollywood", a theme park near her "Tennessee mountain home."
Unfortunately, Dolly's post-"Whorehouse" films and albums were critical and
commercial disappointments and her 1987 TV series "Dolly" was canceled after
only 13 weeks.
Even worse, tabloid stories about illicit romances and breast
augmentation(!!!) joined real-life weight loss, gynecological and depression
problems to sidetrack Parton's career just as a new generation of country
singers emerged to take her place. On the other hand, Parton ended this
decade with a well-acclaimed part in Steel Magnolias, this generation's
answer to The Women.
In spite of her blowzy public persona, Parton is reticent about her
private life. Her autobiography, the entertaining Dolly: My Life and Other
Unfinished Business (1994) hides as much as it reveals about its author.
Though Dolly is still married to the reclusive Carl Dean, the two lived apart
for most of their union, and they have no children. When Parton moved to
Hollywood in 1977 she left Dean in Tennessee and took with her Judy Ogle, her
lifelong "best friend."
By all indications the two women are very close--
they even sleep together, according to Dolly's memoirs. On the other hand,
Parton hotly denies having a lesbian relationship with Ogle, and publicly
proclaims a personal preference for men in general and Dean in particular.
It must be said that Dolly is a long-time supporter of lesbian and gay
rights, and has many gay friends and countless gay fans.
"Once upon a time and far, far away, back in the hollers at the foothills
of the great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee there lived a little girl with
yellow hair, blue-green eyes, fair skin, and freckles. She loved to read
almost as much as she loved to dream. She read everything she could get her
hands on, the Bible, The Farmer's Almanac, the funeral home directory, the
directions and descriptions on the garden and flower seed packets, all
medicine bottles, catalogues, any and all kinds of mail, school books . . .
but mostly she loved fairy tales. So I grew up to be a fairy princess of a
sort, more of a Cinderella story, the rags to riches kind."
Though she no longer rules the country charts, Dolly Parton has retained the public's love
and respect. In 1999 Parton was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame
and pleased fans and critics alike with The Grass Is Blue, her first
bluegrass album. Whatever her ups and downs, Parton's career is not over yet.
Jesse Monteagudo, Florida's foremost
GLBT scholar, is featured in James T. Sears'
forthcoming history of the gay South:
Rebels, Rubyfruit and Rhinestones
to be published in May by
Rutger's University Press.
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