How did Dolly touch your life?
Tyrades! by Danny Tyree
If you’re like me, the larger-than-life Dolly Parton has intersected numerous phases of your story.
My awareness of Dolly goes back nearly 60 years. Nashville’s WSM-TV (now WSMV-TV) carried “The Porter Wagoner Show” (on which Dolly performed from 1967-1974) as part of its Saturday afternoon lineup of syndicated country music shows.
(I was born a wee bit too late and too far to the west to see Dolly’s debut at age 10 on grocer Cas Walker’s Knoxville-area “Farm and Home Hour,” but I did shop at a Cas Walker store in the late 70s.)
Admittedly, my prepubescent self looked forward to the comedy of the late, great Speck Rhodes as much as the pulchritude of Dolly; but her solos and duets were welcome nonetheless.
Later, on a junior high school field trip to WSMV, I got to see a prominent poster of Porter and Dolly advertising Breeze laundry detergent (which famously packed exclusive “flowery towels” or washcloths in each box).
During college, I went from hitting the books to slapping my knee as I watched the movie “9 to 5,” in which Dolly, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin terrorized horrible boss Dabney Coleman. (Still hard to resist getting pumped up by that theme song.)
The year my wife and I started dating, ABC launched a high-octane variety show starring Dolly. Initial ratings were spectacular, but an alarming decline soon began. As the Grok chatbot explains, “Hollywood producers and writers pushed a glossy, high-concept production that often felt forced.” Eventually, viewers received episodes that were more intimate, more authentic, more geared to Dolly’s down-home personality; but it was too little, too late.
I have written before about my family’s (multiple) trips to Dollywood. Barbara Mandrell sang “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool,” but I was at Dollywood when Dollywood wasn’t Dollywood. In 1967, my parents took me and my brother (and our mother’s boss) on a memorable visit to Rebel Railroad, which became Goldrush Junction, which became Silver Dollar City Tennessee, which became the “Smoky Mountain fairyland” Dollywood. I am indebted to Dolly for helping more families enjoy a super-sized version of my childhood.
Of course my son Gideon was an eager recipient of the free books mailed out by Dolly’s Imagination Library. True, the Tyree family already possessed bookshelves creaking with graphic novels, textbooks and my wife’s childhood storybook collection; but I am in awe of the benefit to homes where books were scarce (whether because of poverty or reading-averse parents).
I haven’t finished listening to it, but Dolly’s 2024 album “Smoky Mountain DNA: Family, Faith and Fables” (with performances by five generations of her father’s and mother’s relatives) is raw and real and a testament to not “gettin’ above your raisin’.”
Especially considering the news of Dolly’s passing, I’m sorry I wasn’t present in June when she cut the ribbon for the grand opening of Dolly’s Tennessean Travel Stop, just down the road from where my mother and Gideon both graduated from high school.
President Trump called for flags to fly at half-staff in honor of Dolly – a rare honor for a “mere” entertainer/entrepreneur/philanthropist.
To Dolly’s credit, such honors for celebrities might be more common – if not for their focus on hedonism or divisive political grandstanding.
I’d love to hear your own memories of Dolly.
And remember: “If you see someone without a smile today, give ‘em yours.”
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Copyright 2026 Danny Tyree, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.
Danny Tyree welcomes email responses at tyreetyrades@aol.com and visits to his Facebook fan page “Tyree’s Tyrades.”
Copyright 2026 Danny Tyree, All Rights Reserved. Credit: Cagle.com
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