A Brief Tribute by Doug Draper
Posted August 25th, 2026 on Niagara At Large
Dolly Parton, front and centre, with friends and fellow singers Emmylou Harris to her left and Linda Rondstadt to her right. Together they recorded a few very warmly recieved albums.
I am no big fan of country music, but oh how sorry I was to hear the news that this country singer/songwriter has gone.
I am talking about Dolly Parton, who has just passed away at age 80 and who was such a presence in our collective lives over the past 50 or more years for her music, her infectious personality and for her dedication to human rights and philanthropy.
She grew up about as poor as you can get in the rual southern United States and worked her way up to being a major seller of recordings, performed with songs that mostly she wrote, and she devoted a good deal of her life encouraging young people from impoverished families to read books.
The world simply needs so many others, with her passion for life and her caring for others.
Just as a final note.
I was getting my hair cut in St. Catharines last year, and the young lady cutting it happened to tell me, after I asked about her southern accent, where she came from. She told me that she worked for Dolly Parton in her charity organization down south and she continued to tell me what a total “a sweatheart” Dolly was – about the nicest person she ever met.
That is what I have always read about this wonderful woman.
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R.I.:P. Dolly Parton
For more on the life and times of Dolly Parton, please click on the screen immediately below –
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