A Lesson From Dolly Parton For All Of Us

There is something striking about discovering what people remember most about Dolly Parton.

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As I write this, I’ve just driven in from Nashville, TN, where I attended the 57th Annual Dove Awards last night. The Dove Awards are Christian Music’s Biggest Night of the Year, celebrating those who have made a significant impact on the Christian and Gospel Music Industry. For decades, I’ve listened to the artists in every genre of Christian and Gospel Music who have ultimately become a significant part of my life's soundtrack.

Dolly Parton is also a significant part of my life’s soundtrack. Some of her recorded hymns and collaborations with CCM artists, including “For King and Country,” are among my favorite songs.

It was such a shock to me when the news of her passing recently broke. I immediately began thinking about the impact she made on thousands of people throughout her life and career. I thought of the memories we all hold from her extensive musical catalog. I thought of the books young children have received through The Imagination Library. I thought of the countless philanthropic contributions made to those in need after disasters and life-altering events. I thought of the lessons about love we learned from her devotion to her husband, Carl Dean. And, as Amy Grant, a well-known and accomplished artist in her own right, said while fighting back her own tears last night, “We’ve never known a world without Dolly Parton in it.” That comment resonated with me and with so many others in the crowd last night.

For me, the highlight of the night was when Amy and Natalie Grant paid a beautiful musical tribute to Dolly. Earlier, during the evening’s memorial tribute honoring those in the Christian entertainment industry who had died during the past year, the room responded respectfully to each name and face. Then Dolly appeared on the screen, and the applause was thunderous.

Today, on the trip back from Nashville to Tuscaloosa, we stopped at Dolly’s Tennesseean Truck Stop for lunch. Simply making our way to the table offered another glimpse of her extraordinary cultural impact. Hundreds of people crowded around murals, her former tour bus and rhinestone-embellished instruments, snapping pictures and buying souvenirs.

At lunch, the conversation naturally turned to her remarkable legacy: the songs, the awards, the collaborations. But somewhere along the way, another part of Dolly’s legacy kept rising to the top: her kindness.

Perhaps that is what makes her so enduring. Dolly had extraordinary talent, but she also seemed to understand that success means very little if you cannot use it to make someone else’s life a little brighter. If we all “lived like Dolly" this world would be a much better place.

Who would have guessed that, long after we stop singing “Jolene” or “9 to 5,” her KINDNESS might be what we remember most about the life and legacy of Dolly Parton?