26/08/2026
It’s hard to believe a world without Dolly, but here we are! Today the world bid goodbye to her at 80 years young!
No doubt there will be millions of beautiful words written about the songs, the big hair and that unmistakable laugh.
But on a page filled with dog lovers, there’s another very important part of Dolly’s story I wanted to share.
You may not realise but Dolly was a total animal lover and a huge fan of dogs.
So much so that later in life she even started her own pet clothing and accessories brand called — wait for it… Doggy Parton 😂🤣
There were western outfits, gingham collars, blonde wig headpieces and even high-heel-shaped dog toys!
It was fun, fabulous and completely over the top — it was Dolly as a dog brand!
But it wasn’t just about dressing dogs up. A portion of the proceeds from Doggy Parton went to Willa B. Farms, an organisation that provides a home for displaced or abandoned animals that need somewhere safe.
And Dolly’s love of dogs certainly didn’t begin when somebody came up with a clever name for a pet brand.
It went all the way back to a little dog called Cracker Jack.
Dolly grew up in her own words “dirt poor” in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. She was one of 12 children in a teeny tiny home.
Money might have been scarce but children, music and animals were in abundance
Cracker Jack was one of her beloved childhood dogs.
He was a little stray who became Dolly’s constant companion — and many years later she wrote an entire song about him.
She remembered him as one of the best friends she ever had.
And perhaps that’s where Dolly first learnt something every dog lover eventually discovers.
Dogs don’t care what you own.
They don’t care what you look like.
They don’t care whether anybody else thinks you’re important.
They just love you.
Years later, when she had become one of the most famous women in the world, another dog would come into Dolly’s story.
His name was Popeye.
And this time, a dog may have saved her life — Dolly later spoke about a very dark period in the early 1980s when health problems and personal heartbreak had left her deeply unhappy.
One afternoon, things became so bad that she was contemplating ending her life — And then she heard something.
Tap, tap, tap.
Popeye was coming up the stairs.
He bounded into the room, happy to see her, completely unaware of what had been happening just moments before.
And something changed.
Dolly later described Popeye’s arrival as a spiritual message.
I absolutely love that story! — because anyone who has truly loved a dog understands it.
Dogs don’t know when they’re saving us.
They don’t arrive with clever answers.
They don’t tell us everything is going to be okay.
They just appear at the exact right time! I call them angels in fur coats!
A nose nudging your hand.
A head resting on your knee.
And sometimes, that’s enough.
Dolly never lost that softness for animals and was always a staunch advocate.
In fact, her very first record, released when she was just 13 years old, was called Puppy Love.
But animals were only one part of Dolly’s extraordinary generosity.
Dolly adored her father, Robert Lee Parton. He was a hardworking, intelligent man, but he had never had the opportunity to learn to read or write.
Dolly never forgot that.
So in 1995, back home in Tennessee, she started giving books to local preschool children.
Just books.
Free books, posted to children every month from birth until they started school.
She called it Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
That little idea grew.
And grew.
And grew.
Today, children across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Ireland receive those books.
By June this year, Dolly’s little idea had put more than 325 MILLION books into the hands of children.
More than 3.5 million books were being sent every single month.
All because a little girl who grew up with very little never forgot the father she loved who couldn’t read.
Then there was Dollywood.
Dolly could have built her theme park anywhere.
Instead, she put it back in the mountains where she came from, bringing jobs, visitors and opportunity to the community that had raised her.
Through the years she funded scholarships and education programs, helped families after devastating wildfires, supported children’s hospitals and medical research and quietly put her money behind causes that mattered the most to her.
She became enormously wealthy — but she never seemed to forget what it felt like to have very little.
Maybe that’s why people loved her so much.
Not just because she could sing.
Not just because she wrote Jolene or 9-5, they loved Dolly because she was true to herself.
She was kind, funny, outrageous, OTT and most importantly she could laugh at herself which is rare these days!
She once joked:
“I look at myself like a show dog. I’ve got to keep her clipped and trimmed and in good shape.”
Naturally, I am in full agreement with this sentiment 😂🐾
For all the millions of records Dolly sold…
For all those hundreds of millions of books she gave away…
For all the people she helped…
There was once a moment when Dolly herself needed somebody.
And the somebody who came was a little dog.
Tap, tap, tap.
Popeye coming up the stairs.
So somewhere beyond the rainbow tonight, I hope Dolly hears that sound again.
Tap, tap, tap.
And there he is.
Just Dolly and an old friend who has been waiting a very long time to see her.
Rest easy, Dolly Parton.
Thank you for the music, the laughter, the love and, most of all, the kindness you shared with us all.
The world is brighter, kinder and considerably more sparkly because you were in it. 🌈❤️🐾
