Friends, we have to put aside our bickerings for just a moment, eh? Grab a cup of tea, sit close, and let’s talk about something that hits right deep in the chest.
One of our most loved American friends has passed at eighty years old. The forever Queen of Country music, Mrs. Dolly Parton.
Like a lot of you out there in the great wide open, I felt right down to my bones as though Dolly was part of our family. My momma had been playing Dolly Parton music and good old country songs on the old stereo player my entire life growing up, right through the bitter Canadian winters and the sweet summer breezes.
I remember looking up at the glowing television screen and seeing Dolly Parton with her big, brilliant smile, her fierce kindness, and that positive, magnetic energy that could light up the dark skies over the prairies. I looked at her and I said to myself, right then and there: “THAT! I want to look and sound like that woman!”
The famous quip "It takes a lot of money to look this cheap" is one of Dolly Parton's most iconic and frequently cited lines. It is a self-deprecating, tongue-in-cheek remark about her signature glamorous style, which features towering wigs, heavy makeup, rhinestones, and high heels. Parton used this line to humorously acknowledge that maintaining her distinct, exaggerated "cheap" or flashy appearance actually requires significant financial investment in high-quality wigs, custom costumes, and professional styling.
And even though I was rail thin and had a giant, afro, I started practicing her Appalachian accent and singing her songs. When I finally took up the courage to step onto the stage for the elementary school, I took a little piece of Dolly right up there with me in my back pocket.
When my friends' families would take me on their road trips out to their vast family farms, bouncing down the gravel roads, I honestly fully expected to see Dolly Parton lookalikes just walking around out there tending the gardens. Then it happened. One day, my friend Tara and her family took me on a road trip to visit her grandparents.
I remember sitting in the backseat of that dusty sedan, looking out as miles of golden wheat fields flew by outside the car window, humming her songs under my breath. Then we arrived at a lone farmhouse perched right in the middle of those endless fields. There were no other houses as far as the eye could see, just big sky and quiet earth. I remember standing beside the kitchen sink as her grandmother finished washing our lunch dishes, water splashing softly. She was so gentle and good-humoured to a lanky kid who didn’t belong to her, and she reminded me so much of Dolly’s boundless, quiet grace.
Those moments out in the country are the very reason I love the land and the salt-of-the-earth country people so much. As I grew up and walked through this life, I found that nearly every born-and-raised country woman I’ve ever spoken to carries that exact same genuine Dolly Parton kindness in her heart.
Today, and through all the decades ahead as we lift our voices and sing her songs in tribute, I want to say a heartfelt thank you to Dolly Parton, and to the Parton family, for sharing Dolly Rebecca Parton Dean with all of us.
Queen, rest in peace in that beautiful, plush bed of golden country cotton. Amen.
