Coat of Many Colors

Growing up in East Tennessee, Dolly was omnipresent. She epitomized “local girl done well,” and then some.

She had been a regular on former Knoxville Mayor Cas Walker’s radio show then caught the bus to Nashville the day she graduated high school. Hit after hit after hit. TV shows. Guest appearances. Records with everyone. Movies. It all seemed unreal.

But, if you were the least bit familiar with the Smokies, you knew the poverty from which she came. You may not have known it first hand, but you knew people who did. You saw it when you drove to the mountains and in the less-developed corners of Knox County. And pretty much everyone knew someone who knew Dolly or one of her many brothers and sisters. East Tennessee was still relatively small like that in those days.

And Dolly was the biggest thing ever to come out of our hollers. She had a show with Porter Waggoner and they sold boxes of Breeze detergent with a free bath towel inside. I begged and begged my mother to just once buy that brand instead of her usual Tide.

Then, there was Dolly on Johnny Carson and being interviewed by Barbra Walters. She became a bit of a joke on the coasts. I bet it bothered her but she just shook it off and stayed two steps ahead of everyone, in on the joke and out-talenting and out-working everyone in her way.

My favorite local story was about her alma matter, Sevier County High School. When my school would occasionally play them in football, their band uniforms and instruments were always brand new and sparkly and better than anything our band had. That’s because Dolly made sure the marching band always had the best. As teenagers, we were a bit jealous but knew that if she had been a Farragut Admiral, she’d have done the same for us.

And it turns out, that’s the way she was. She cared and she never forgot where she came from and she gave back,in spades. She loved East Tennessee, and boy, did it love it her back.

We should all know Dolly’s love. Thank you for your gifts and rest easy, sweet lady.