Over 100 million records sold, 25 No. 1 hits on the US country charts, 11 Grammys and three Emmys — country star Dolly Parton is one of the most successful singers in the world. At 80 years old, she’s bringing the same energy she did when her career was just getting started.
Here are eight facts from 80 exciting years.
1. Cornmeal for the doctor
Dolly Parton came from humble beginnings, growing up with 11 siblings in Sevier County, Tennessee. Born on January 19, 1946, her parents paid the doctor who assisted at her birth with a sack of cornmeal — though some sources say it was oats. Parton was born into a musical family, learned guitar at seven and gave her first television performance at age 10.
2. No “Dumb Blonde”
Multiple sources have reported Parton’s IQ to be at least 140. Her first song to enter the US country charts on January 21, 1967, was “Dumb Blonde,” in which she sings “this dumb blonde ain’t nobody’s fool.” It was a bold start in the male-dominated 1960s show business. “I’m not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I’m not dumb… and I also know that I’m not blonde,” she has said.
3. Impressive parade of wigs
Across her seven-decade career, Parton has followed fashion trends — especially hairstyles. Her trademark platinum blonde look was largely achieved with wigs to avoid bleaching her own hair; her collection is said to number over 350 wigs. Parton has never hidden her cosmetic surgeries and has used them to change her appearance, while remaining a warm, generous superstar. In 2025, Forbes valued her fortune at around $450 million. She has shared her wealth with people in need for decades, particularly in Tennessee and beyond.
4. Promoting reading for kids
Since 1995, Parton’s Dollywood Foundation has sponsored The Imagination Library, sending a book each month from birth until age five. More than 300 million books have been distributed across the US, Canada, Australia, the UK and Ireland. The program is funded by the foundation, government support and private donors; some US states have recently moved to cut their support. Parton, who has no children, founded the program in honor of her father, Robert Lee Parton, who was unable to read. Each year the foundation also awards five $15,000 Dolly Parton Scholarships to Sevier County high school graduates pursuing their dreams.
5. A million dollars during COVID
In 2020, Parton donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, where researchers were working with Moderna on a COVID-19 vaccine. She said she was proud to have helped in the pandemic effort. A few months later she took the vaccine on camera and rewrote her hit “Jolene” as “Vaccine” to mark the occasion.
6. Hundreds of “Jolene” covers
“Jolene” is among the most frequently covered songs in pop music. The site cover.info lists over 80 official covers, and countless others appear online. A notable rendition came from The White Stripes in 2004. Parton has recorded multiple versions herself — including with Pentatonix and with her goddaughter Miley Cyrus — and they performed together on The Voice in 2016.
7. Two world hits on one day
Parton wrote both “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You” on the same day in 1972. “I Will Always Love You,” famously covered by Whitney Houston, was written not as a romantic song but as Parton’s farewell to her mentor Porter Wagoner when she left their professional partnership. Houston’s 1990s cover earned Parton another $10 million in royalties, which she said she invested in an office complex in a Black neighborhood in Nashville — “the house that Whitney built,” as she called it.
8. Not the best doppelganger
In a fun anecdote, Parton once entered a Dolly Parton drag-queen lookalike contest and lost. On The Ellen DeGeneres Show she said she had exaggerated features to avoid being recognized — making her beauty mark bigger, her breasts larger and her hair bigger — but another contestant won when the crowd decided the victor.
This article was originally written in German.