Dolly Parton: An Awesome Reflection

By Kevin Stewart | Shine Daily

Dolly Parton’s death has brought out something you don’t always see when a celebrity dies: people are talking about their own lives.

A grandmother who used to play Dolly records every Sunday. A family trip to Dollywood. Someone remembering 9 to 5 being on television when they were growing up. A kid who received one of Dolly’s Imagination Library books without really understanding who she was.

Those little stories probably say more about her impact than the awards ever could.

Dolly was famous, obviously. But she also became familiar. Her songs were in people's houses. Her movies were part of family nights. Her name was connected to a place people visited.

And she kept giving back, particularly through the Imagination Library and her work supporting education and communities in Tennessee.

That's why her passing feels personal to people who never met her.

You don't have to know somebody personally for them to become part of your memories.

Sometimes they're just the voice coming through the radio while your family drives somewhere.

Sometimes they're the movie your parents watched.

Sometimes they're the person whose name you remember from a book you got as a child.

For a lot of people, Dolly was all three.

Now people are swapping those memories again.

And honestly, that's a pretty good way to remember her.

My Own Favorite memory of her was the wonderful Dollywood Christmas Specials on PBS, Halmark and other cable networks depending on the year. My other is the wonderful movie Joyful Noise which I belive deserves a sequel but it wouldn't be a great sequel without Dolly.