2 min readAug 27, 2026 06:15 AM IST First published on: Aug 27, 2026 at 06:15 AM ISTFor over half a century, the force called Dolly Parton, who died at 80 after a brief battle with cancer, was not just a global star, she was that instantly recognisable artist who looked indestructible. Before she marched into living rooms all over the world, she was everywhere in America — on radio, TV, stage and films. She always showed up with that trademark over-the-top aesthetic — towering blonde hair, theatrical make-up (“I apply it with a trowel,” she’d say) and rhinestones. Beneath the spectacle, however, was razor-sharp wit, enormous ambition and an instinct for survival. “Just because I am blonde, I don’t think I am dumb,” she sang in her 1966 single ‘Dumb Blonde’.Growing up in the Smoky Mountains, the fourth of 12 children in a family with little money but plenty of music, Parton sang from the time she could. By four, she was harmonising with her siblings, by seven she was playing the guitar and writing songs and soon performed publicly. After high school, she moved to Nashville, the heart of country music. This was the ’60s, and in country music, women were still treated as second-class citizens. But Parton pushed her way in and became a household name with musician Porter Wagoner’s nationally syndicated TV show. But Parton wanted more. She decided to leave, crossed over to LA and to pop and reached a much larger audience with ‘Here You Come Again’ (1977), which won her a Grammy. Then came the songs that made her immortal: ‘Jolene’, ‘I Will Always Love You’, ‘Coat of Many Colours’, among others. She never retired.AdvertisementHer final personal wish was to be laid to rest in a “beautiful bed of plush cotton”. She felt she deserved comfort after a lifetime of wearing heavy rhinestones. She always knew exactly what she wanted.