You probably should. Even if you’re not a fan of her music, she was an icon of kindness, compassion, and tolerance; you would be hard pressed to find anyone who had anything negative to say about her. Not to mention her charm and sense of humor.

She was an amazingly compassionate woman. You don’t need to be a fan of her music to respect her as a human being. She was a giant. She radiated warmth and kindness, and the world is a little smaller and darker without her in it.

She grew up extremely poor in the mountains of Tennessee, and worked very hard to become a successful country singer. She had a long-running campaign, sending free children’s books to elementary school libraries, and she was helping lead the charge on AIDS research funding and public awareness during the AIDS crisis. Had a famously good lemon pudding recipe.

Fun fact, Dolly the Cloned Sheep was named after her. (Well… named after her boobs, since Dolly was cloned from the mammary cells of her donor). Dolly Parton apparently found that absolutely hilarious.

Joleen is a very beautiful song

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And she could have been worth so much fucking more. I’m not a celebrity worshipper, and God knows I’m not an apologist for the rich, but no. Dolly was absolutely an avatar for human compassion. She was human, and had faults, but she did more good in this world than she did wrong, and she did more good than anyone else I’ve ever seen in similar positions. She was my best friend’s aunt, and even the inner circle family never really had anything negative to say about her, other than that she kept herself so busy worried about others that they worried about her.

Wat h Lindsey Ellis’s video on her, if you want. https://youtu.be/uJuKN0chAZk