RIP, a legend

 If you know, you can guess what this is about. If you didn't, I'm sorry this is how you found out (but I suspect most people know)

 

Dolly Parton died today.

I had come home for lunch - a little late, I get out of class at 12:15 and then I had to do the "census" for my classes (basically: in the second week you have to report if anyone never attended. I only had one person across my four classes. This is to prevent financial aid fraud though I do admit in the past I had a few people I reported get mad at me "I was GOING to start attending! I had to finish up my summer job!" but how was I to know). 

So it was a bit before 1, I had one of the news channels on, and the reader said "oh, wait, we have breaking news" and then revealed the news.

I admit, sitting in my living room, I said "NOOOOOOOOOO!" 

It's hard to believe even though she WAS 80, and there were some things that suggested lately she'd had a health challenge of some sort. But there are some people you expect to stick around forever. 

It makes me sad. More about who she was and what she chose to do with her wealth, fame, and influence than her music (which we always will have). 

She helped fund the Moderna Covid vaccine.

She had the Imagination Library, which introduced children around the world to books and the joy of reading.

She did a lot of largely-unsung things for folks in the corner of Tennessee where she grew up

She supported a pet rescue and a bald-eagle sanctuary that helped protect injured birds and let them live out their lives

She was apparently warm and kind to EVERYONE and a lot of people on Bluesky pointed out that she was an ally of gay and trans people even back when you had to be even braver to be so.

And she donated (IIRC) the royalty  proceeds she got  from Whitney Houston's cover of I Will Always Love You to help renovate a largely-Black neighborhood in Nashville.

 

I commented that Dolly Parton didn't do good deeds so people would mourn her when she was gone, or build monuments to her; she did them because they were the right thing and she could do them. I suspect her coming from very modest beginnings shaped her sense of "we live in a community" and desire to help. But also - she had the money and she could do it, and she CHOSE to do it. (Unlike some very wealthy people who sit like Smaug atop their money or stock options or whatever instead of maybe helping others)

When someone like Parton passes, there's a huge outpouring of stories about what they did, and lots of comments about how good she was. Again, I don't know for sure what the "secret sauce" that caused her to make the choices she did - I suppose it could be, as I said, coming from modest beginnings and saying, once she acquired some wealth "other people don't have to cope with what I did; I can make it so they don't" or if it was her deep faith or what. 

Someone on Bluesky commented "Imagine being talented and beautiful and rich and famous and still the most noteworthy thing about you is how good you are" and I dont' think that's so much a paean to Dolly's goodness as maybe it's an indictment of the rest of our society; that she seems to have been so rare a person.

Someone also shared a story that happened to Roger Ebert of how when he met her and interviewed her, he sensed a "healing and comforting presence" about her, and it turned out that when he told his colleague Gene Siskel about it, he revealed he had the same sense. (And I saw reports from other people who had met her, talking about her gracious and loving presence). And I admit, I wonder if maybe somehow there are a few angels that are permitted to visit earth, and maybe we don't recognize them when they're here, but they make things better and then are deeply missed when they leave.

Though also, maybe she was a sign that more of us should try to emulate her: be more loving, more accepting of people you might not fully understand, being more generous, helping out when you can, and also - being able to laugh at yourself.

(I can't, and Dolly could, and I always appreciated when I heard some of her humor; a famous one was an interviewer asked her if she disliked "dumb blonde" jokes and she laughed and said "no, I'm not. Because I know I'm not dumb - and I also know I'm not blonde!")

Of course she was also a gifted musician, and wrote a lot of music (and seemed to be canny about how to keep the rights to the songs, and I read that she's set up trusts so the charities she's funded can continue as best as possible)

"I Will Always Love You" was famously covered by Whitney Houston, but I admit I prefer Parton's original version, with the short spoken-word bit in it

 (And yes, I know: she wrote this the same day as Jolene. And Jolene is a good song, but I prefer this one, it is a type of heartbreak I understand well from my younger life)

Another favorite song of hers for me is "Light of a Clear Blue Morning." In a different (choral) arrangement, the campus choir sang this at Del's memorial service back in 2021 (in that strange inbetween time when most of us were vaccinated but still being SO careful) and it was so perfect and I've loved it sense

She could have fun, too, with music, and she had fun with other musicians. I think maybe she just loved everybody? This is another happy bit, when she and Patti LaBelle figured out an unusual way to get rhythm:

 

 I also realize from that what an infectious laugh she had, you can't hear that and not smile. 

Anyway, another comment I made on Bluesky about it: If anyone gets to hear "well done, My good and faithful servant" as they enter the Pearly Gates, it's her.