74. Just Because I'm a Woman: The Life and Legacy of Dolly Parton

**Monte Mader** (0:00)
On Tuesday, August 25th, 2026, at the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center here in Nashville, Dolly Rebecca Parton died at 80 years old. Her publicist, Marcel Pariseau, released 18 words that a lot of us are going to remember for the rest of our lives. After bravely facing a brief battle with cancer, Dolly departed her earthly life today at the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center surrounded by loved ones. The announcement to the public came from her nephew, Brian Siever, the son of her sister, Cassie, and for decades the head of her security detail. Dolly picked him herself years in advance and told him he'd be the one to say it. He posted a video. It is an honor, he said, an honor that is mixed with absolute pride and great sadness. And then he said Dolly was a farmer just like her daddy. He farmed the soil, she farmed songs. He also passed along a request she'd made to him on the phone. She told him she wanted to rest in a beautiful bed of plush cotton because after a life of wearing heavy rhinestones, she finally deserved to be comfortable and have some rest. The last message posted to her account was four words. I will always love you. Today's episode is a biography and a celebration, the whole life of Dolly Rebecca Parton, born January 19th, 1946, in a one-room cabin in the Little Pigeon River in Pittman Center, Tennessee, fourth of 12 children delivered by a country doctor or father paid with a sack of cornmeal. Dead 80 years later in a cancer center 25 minutes from where I'm recording this, having given away an estimated $600 million, written more than 3,000 songs, sold more than 100 million records, and mailed more than 330 million free books to children who did not have any. So I live here in Nashville. The city's been a lot quieter all week. On Wednesday, the metro courthouse downtown was lit pink. The Empire State Building in New York was lit pink. Of course, Donald Trump ordered the every flag in the country to have staff until sunset on September 1st, for a woman who, by the way, turned down his presidential Medal of Freedom twice. In Sevierville, the county courthouse bell tolled at noon, and people stood in the street and cried in front of a bronze statue of a barefoot teenage girl with a guitar that has been sitting there since May 3rd of 1987 In San Francisco, people gathered at the Harvey Milk Plaza and the Castro. Casey Musgraves said the world, quote, feels a lot less sparkly all of a sudden. Jane Fonda, who made nine to five with her in 1980, wrote, I am devastated. The funeral was private, immediate family only at her request. The family asked that instead of flowers, people donate to the Imagination Library. I want to shout out my followers in the Coven of Curiosity. We raised over $10,000 just through the video I did, and that does not include the other people that donated externally to that. Today we're going to Sevier County, Tennessee. We're going to spend some time on the land, the people, where it all started, how the economy and poverty and illiteracy that Dolly Parton was born into grew, because you cannot understand the Imagination Library unless you understand Robert Lee Parton, her father. We're going to talk about her childhood, her career in order in detail. From the $5.00 radio gig in Knoxville to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with her 60-year marriage to Carl Dean running through the story. Then we'll talk about her philanthropy, her last years, and then of course, do some celebration with our five takeaways. Today is all about Miss Dolly Parton on Flipping Tables.
Hello, everybody. Just a forewarning. First of all, if you're new here, welcome to Flipping Tables. My name is Monty Maeder. I am your host, the leader of the Coven of Curiosity. Hopefully someone who has given you things to think about, challenged ideals, made you make some decisions on your own. That's what this whole group is for. It's really about asking questions. It's about looking at learning history, looking at things we were taught and challenging them, challenging our worldview and saying, is this true? Do I believe in this? Or maybe have I gathered new information and I can think of things differently because the truth is never afraid of scrutiny. So we should never ever, ever be afraid of asking questions. I have a few announcements. The first one is that our next Bible study, these are the free Bible studies that I lead twice a month. I took a little bit of a summer break. I needed it. These are free studies where we talk about the history of passages or ideas or interpretations. And then we do an hour Q&A. The next Bible study will be at 6 p.m. Central Time, this Wednesday, September 2nd. You do have to RSVP for this study. You can RSVP for this Bible study going to crowdcast.io/atmontedashmater.