There are a lot of tributes and memories on the Internet right now about Dolly. At 80, she seemed like had a couple of decades left in her. That was until she cancelled her Vegas residency, which we now know likely had to do with cancer. But the real remarkable thing was that she somehow managed to enable everyone around her, be endlessly kind and build a business empire without hurting anyone.
I never met her, but I had just one degree of separation, since she founded Dollywood, and I've met no shortage of people who worked for the park. I knew of her music, both written and performed by others, but I wouldn't say that I was a fan, exactly. I most recently saw her on TV when she played a version of herself on The Orville. Again, I followed her mostly through the theme park business. Her impact on the Pigeon Forge area has been remarkable.
It's really her philanthropy record that is most amazing. She gave money to students that pledged to graduate from high school, and got books in the hands of kids globally. She raised money for HIV/AIDS charities. And remember that she threw $1 million at the labs working on the COVID vaccine. Talk about stepping up. Reading up on it, apparently there were countless other things she did without many people knowing, like donating band uniforms to high schools and paying for tuition for Dollywood college students.
Dolly managed to be a feminist contradicting virtually every stereotype, and did her thing at every stage. She was girl-power icon for Boomers, and a seemingly unlikely advocate for gay and trans rights. Above all, she led with love. When you look around at people in the world, it feels like that's increasingly rare.
My thoughts are with the friends, family and communities that knew her best.
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