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Singer Dolly Parton has 41 career top 10 country albums, a record for any artist, and she has 110 career charted singles over the past 40 years. Learn 50 facts you didn't know about Parton.
1. She is known for classic songs such as "Jolene," "Coat of Many Colors," and her mega-hit "I Will Always Love You."
2. With 1977's crossover hit "Here You Come Again," she successfully erased the line between country and pop music without noticeably altering either her music or her image. "I'm not leaving country," she said at the time, "I'm just taking it with me."
3. Making her film debut in the 1980 hit comedy 9 to 5, Dolly earned rave reviews for her performance and an Oscar nomination for writing the title tune, along with her second and third Grammy Awards.
4. Roles in Steel Magnolias, Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Rhinestone, and Straight Talk followed, along with two network television series, made for television movies, network and HBO specials, and guest-starring roles in series television.
5. In 2006, Dolly earned her second Oscar nomination for "Travelin' Thru," which she wrote for the film Transamerica.
6. Born January 19, 1946 on a farm in Sevier County, Tennessee, Dolly is the fourth of twelve children.
7. Her parents, Robert Lee and Avie Lee Parton struggled to make ends meet in the impoverished East Tennessee hills.
8. By age 10, Dolly was performing on local television and radio shows in nearby Knoxville, Tennessee. "I always wanted to be a star. It just seemed natural to me," she said. "Making music is all I've ever known."
9. Dolly left for Nashville the day after her high school graduation.
10. On her first afternoon in Nashville, she met a young man, Carl Dean, who would become her husband.
11. Two years aftre they met in May 1966, Dolly and Carl were married. "He's good for me, cause he's so different in nature from me," she smiles.
12. In 1967, Dolly's career took off when country music superstar Porter Wagoner began featuring her on his popular syndicated television show, exposing Dolly to over 45 million people in more than 100 markets and attracting the attention of record executives at RCA.
13. Dolly and Porter had 14 Top Ten hits together, and Dolly quickly blossomed into one of the best-selling country artists in music history.
14. By 1974, Dolly ended her working relationship with Wagoner.
15. She was voted the Country Music Association Female Artist of the Year two years in a row.
16. In 1978, Dolly was named the CMA Entertainer of the Year.
17. In 1974, "I Will Always Love You" topped the charts and did so again in 1982 when it was revived in the movie Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, making Dolly the first artist to earn a number one record twice with the same song.
18. In 1992, the song was recorded by Whitney Houston for the movie The Bodyguard and went on to sell in excess of 4 million copies, topping the charts once again. "I Will Always Love You" was named BMI's Most Performed Song of the Year in 1993.
19. Dolly saw a cherished dream become a reality in 1986 with the opening of her own theme park called Dollywood, in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, at the base of the Great Smoky Mountains.
20. The state's number one tourist attraction, Dollywood was selected by the theme park industry as one of the top three theme parks in the world in 2006.
21. In 1988, she began the Dollywood Foundation to inspire children in her home community to dream more, learn more, do more and care more.
22. Currently the foundation funds the Dolly Parton Imagination Library across America and in Canada, by giving every preschool child a book each month from the time he or she is born until the child reaches kindergarten.
23. Also in 1988, Dolly founded a group of dinner attractions called Dixie Stampede.
24. In 2001, she built Dollywood's Splash Country, which is Tennessee's largest water park.
25. Dolly Parton's entertainment businesses attract 4.5 million visitors annually and employ more than 3,000 people.
26. Long respected for her instinctive business savvy, Dolly established Velvet Apple Music (BMI) early in her career and owns the copyrights and the publishing for her vast songwriting empire. She owns her own successful record label, Dolly Records.
27. Dolly Parton transitioned her flair for making hit music into producing hit movies and television shows when she established Sandollar Productions with former manager, Sandy Gallin.
28. A film and television production company, Sandollar has produced feature films such as Father of the Bride I and II, Straight Talk, Sabrina, Shining Through, IQ, and the Academy Award-winning (for Best Documentary) Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, along with Fox television shows Babes and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
29. Her 1994 autobiography was aptly titled "My Life and Other Unfinished Business."
30. Achieving 25 RIAA certified gold, platinum and multi-platinum awards, she has had 25 songs reach number 1 on the Billboard Country charts, a record for a female artist.
31. She has 41 career top 10 country albums, a record for any artist, and she has 110 career charted singles over the past 40 years.
32. All-inclusive sales of singles, albums, hits collections, paid digital downloads and compilation usage during her Hall of Fame career have reportedly topped a staggering 100 million records world-wide.
33. She has garnered 7 Grammy Awards, 10 Country Music Association Awards, 5 Academy of Country Music Awards, 3 American Music Awards and is one of only five female artists to win the Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year Award.
34. In 1999, Dolly Parton was inducted as a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.
35. She has her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and became a member of the National Academy of Popular Music Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001.
36. Broadcast Music, Inc. honored Dolly with their Icon Award in 2003, and in 2004, the U.S. Library of Congress presented her with their Living Legend Award for her contribution to the cultural heritage of the United States.
37. This was followed in 2005 with the National Medal of Arts, the highest honor given by the U.S. government for excellence in the arts.
38. In December, 2006 Dolly was honored by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for her lifetime of contributions to the arts.
39. In June 2007 Dolly was named the recipient of the prestigious Johnny Mercer Award from the Songwriter's Hall of Fame.
40. Yet with all of the national and international recognition given her, Dolly Parton calls the bronze statue of her, which stands on the courthouse lawn in her hometown of Sevierville, Tennessee, her "greatest honor, because it came from the people who know me."
41. On May 30, 1966, Parton and Carl Thomas Dean were married in Ringgold, Georgia.
42. Although Parton does not use Dean's surname professionally, she has stated that her passport says "Dolly Parton Dean" and that she sometimes uses Dean when signing contracts.
43. Dean, who runs an asphalt road-paving business in Nashville, has always shunned publicity and rarely accompanies his wife to any events.
44. According to Parton, he has only ever seen her perform once.
45. However, she has also commented in interviews that, although it appears they spend little time together, it is simply that nobody sees him publicly.
46. She has commented on Dean's romantic side, saying that he does spontaneous things to surprise her and sometimes even writes poems for her.
47. Parton and Dean helped raise several of Parton's younger siblings in Nashville, leading her nieces and nephews to refer to her as "Aunt Granny", a moniker that later lent its name to one of Parton's Dollywood restaurants.
48. The couple have no children of their own but Parton is the godmother of performer Miley Cyrus.
49. In 2011, the couple celebrated their 45th anniversary. Later, Parton said, "We're really proud of our marriage. It's the first for both of us. And the last."
50. She is also known for having undergone considerable plastic surgery.
Source: facebook.com/DollyParton, Wikipedia.org
