As fans continue to process the hearbreaking passing of Dolly Parton at age 80, it’s easy to remember a performer who was the consummate celebrity, a ubiquitous presence on television, film and music for decades.
Everyone knows her story. Born dirt poor in Tennessee’s Smoky Mountains, she reinvented herself as a larger-than-life country music superstar, accentuating her curvy figure with glittering rhinestone-encrusted ensembles. Armed with an angel’s voice and a rare gift for songwriting, she took Nashville by storm before doing the same with Hollywood and every other medium she attempted.
It’s true that fans know an awful lot about the late, great star — yet’s it’s also true that there are many facets of her life that, while known, aren’t exactly common knowledge.
1. She Was Secretly a Producer on ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’
GettyFor fans who watched the Slayer (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and the Scooby Gang vanquish vampires and other assorted supernatural threats on the beloved cult-hit TV series, the revelation that Dolly Parton was one of the show’s producers would have likely proved shocking.
Yet she was, although don’t go looking for her name in the credits. In 1986, Parton and then-manager Sandy Gallin co-founded a production company called Sandollar. That company was among the producers of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” throughout the series’ run.
In an interview with Business Insider, Parton insisted she was not a hands-off producer who had nothing to do with the show, but was “very involved” in the series. “A lot of my work was done just conversing back and forth with the business people there. And I’d go out for meetings now and then,” she said. “”I didn’t get to meet all of the people, but I wanted them to know that I was there for them, I was proud of them, and they were doing a great job,” Parton added.
Gellar later confirmed that each year, she and the other members of the “Buffy” cast received a Christmas card from Parton. “I was very excited about the show,” Parton added. “That little show did great.”
2. The World’s First Cloned Sheep Was Named After Her
GettyIn 1996, a team of Scottish researchers made history by cloning a sheep from a cell. That sheep came to be dubbed Dolly, and was named after Parton.
Interviewed by BBC, researcher Dr. Ian Wilmut explained how the “9 to 5” singer came to be the inspiration for the famous sheep. “Dolly [the sheep] is derived from a mammary gland cell and we couldn’t think of a more impressive pair of glands than Dolly Parton’s,” he quipped.
3. The Real Jolene Is Not What Fans Imagined
The title track of Dolly Parton’s 1974 “Jolene” album is considered a classic that’s been covered by a diverse array of artists ranging from The White Stripes to Beyoncé. In the song, the singer begs the fetching Jolene to not make a play for her man, believing he will be unable to resist Jolene’s beauty.
Over the years, Parton has shared various versions of how she came up with the idea for Jolene, most frequently citing a pretty red-headed bank teller who flirted with her husband Carl.
And while that may have been true of the subject matter, she once told NPR that the inspiration behind the title came from an entirely different source, a “beautiful little girl … probably 8 years old at the time,” who asked for an autograph. “She had this beautiful red hair, this beautiful skin, these beautiful green eyes. I said, ‘Well, you’re the prettiest little thing I ever saw. So what is your name?’ And she said, ‘Jolene.’ And I said, ‘Jolene. Jolene. Jolene. Jolene.’ I said, ‘That is pretty. That sounds like a song. I’m going to write a song about that.'”
4. She Lost a Dolly Parton Lookalike Contest to a Drag Queen
During a 2012 interview with Nightline, Dolly Parton recalled the time she thought it would be a hoot to enter a Dolly Parton lookalike contest for drag queens at a Los Angeles gay bar.
“They had a bunch of Chers and Dollys that year, so I just over-exaggerated — made my beauty mark bigger, the eyes bigger, the hair bigger, everything,” she recalled. “All these beautiful drag queens had worked for weeks and months getting their clothes. So I just got in the line and I just walked across [the stage], and they just thought I was some little short gay guy.”
She subsequently remembered that moment during an appearance on talk show “Harry.” “They had these big drag queens — I mean they looked great, too, they were prettier than I could ever dream of being,” she said. “All these beautiful guys were walking across, these Dolly Partons … and here I come, walking across the stage, and I got the least applause of anybody.”
5. She Co-Wrote a Bestselling Thriller Novel with an Acclaimed Author
GettyDolly Parton added bestselling novelist to her already-packed resume when she collaborated with author James Patterson on their 2022 thriller “Run, Rose, Run.”
While Parton could have phoned it in and simply slapped her name on the book, she insisted on actually writing, contributing plot ideas and working hands-on with Patterson throughout the process. As a bonus, she wrote and recorded 12 songs for a companion album that further enhanced the experience for the reader.
Interviewed by CBS News, Parton admitted she was initially taken aback when Patterson first approached her about collaborating. “I asked him, ‘Why you need me? You’re doin’ pretty good on your own!'” Parton quipped.
“If I take on a job, a partnership with somebody, I’m gonna do my part,” Parton said of the tireless work ethic that made her a bona fide novelist. “I mean, how would I have been able to promote that book if I did not have some involvement? How would I have allowed that? Because if people ask me, I’d felt like the biggest liar in the world.”
I have never met Dolly Parton ,but I have always believed that she was a very good hard working,honest, trustworthy and of course a very talented! Along with,and I hope that I am not over stepping,a Christ loving woman,