\Dolly Parton has maintained her modesty throughout her extraordinary career as a performer, businesswoman, and philanthropist, while accumulating enormous recognition and wealth. Success has unsurprisingly followed her throughout her journey.
Parton knows the hardships of poverty having grown up in a large family. Despite her success as a hugely important Hollywood actress today, she has never forgotten her lowly roots.
In Nashville, Tennessee, in 1955, Dolly Parton posed for a picture. | Source: Getty Images
The genuine Dolly Rebecca Parton, the music icon, was welcomed home by her parents on January 19, 1946, at their home on Locust Ridge in Sevierville, Tennessee. She has eleven siblings and was born in a one-bedroom cottage.
Her father, sharecropper Robert Lee Parton, worked in construction to augment his income because he was unable to attend school and was hence illiterate.
The legendary country singer grew up surrounded by music because of her family’s strong musical heritage. Despite their challenging living conditions, singing brought them together and brought them joy.
In 1965, in Nashville, Tennessee, Dolly Parton posed for a picture. | Source: Getty Images
Parton learned to sing from her mother, the entertainer Avie Lee Owens. She played her a variety of melodies, including Elizabethan ballads and church hymns that had been passed down through the years in her family.
Parton’s grandfather, Jake Robert Owens, composed the hymn “Singing His Praise” while serving as a priest. A number of Parton’s siblings developed a passion for music, and a few of them participated in her family band.
Sam Owens, a musician and singer-songwriter in his own right, was another uncle of Parton. When she was a little child, her uncle—who loved music—was the first to see that she had the ability to become a well-known musician.
Stella Mae, Cassie Nan, the twins Freida Estelle and Rachel Ann, Willadeene, David Wilburn, Coy Denver, Bobby Lee, Robert, and Larry are among Parton’s siblings. After a fight with cancer, Robert passed away in 2021, while Larry passed away at birth.
Parton often assisted her parents in taking care of the younger children because she was the fourth of her twelve siblings. She shared a little roof with her family.
Their log cottage had no running water or electricity at the time, and it only had a living room and one bedroom. The building is still standing today.
Parton has never shied away from talking about her modest upbringing or how it shaped the way she saw the world. She knows what it’s like to be poor; she grew up in a huge household with little money.
In a promotional picture for her 1984 movie “Rhinestone,” Dolly Parton beams. | Source: Getty Images
Parton talked back to The Guardian in 2016 on her early years spent in the remote Tennessee highlands, emphasizing the happy memories from that time in her life. She stated:
“Obviously, there were problems, but I would rather look back on the good times.”
She recalled the times she had spent with her siblings, singing in church, and doing household chores that she didn’t really enjoy. She also remembered all of the laughs she had with her family in the past.
Parton talked about how her siblings would always sing and how she would always attempt to get them to back her up when she pretended to be the lead vocalist on stage, but they would never show any interest.
Parton remembered that her brothers would frequently cram themselves into their small home, which resulted in a lot of mocking and fighting. But they remained a family through all of the turmoil.
The cottage was too small for them to comfortably hang out in, she said, so they spent most of their time outside. The courtyard functioned as an addition for socializing over meals, entertainment, and games.
Parton stated that her family was constantly appreciative of their access to food and a roof. Her parents consistently stressed that other families suffered more than their own, even though it was not exactly what they desired. She remembered:
“I never felt poor, even though we were.”
Parton’s enthusiasm and musical ability would ultimately enable her to become one of the most popular and successful country music artists of all time, despite her family’s humble beginnings.
Growing Up in Poverty
Parton said that although she had happy childhood memories, being poor meant having to endure difficult living circumstances. She and her 14-member family essentially lived in a shanty and had little access to needs.
She revealed that she was just eight years old when she first saw a toilet and bathroom in her aunt’s house and was attracted by them in a March 1978 Playboy magazine interview with journalist Lawrence Grobel.
Parton revealed that she and her siblings were terrified to use the restroom because they believed it would swallow them up, while laughing at how naive and innocent they were at the time. “It was just very strange,” she remembered.
For Parton and her family, taking a daily shower was not an extravagance. Frequently, they would produce their own soap, and occasionally, they would cram themselves into the truck and head to the river to have a bath.
Although there was a brook close by, they all chose to bathe in the river since it served as their “big bath.” As their homemade soap cascaded down the river, they would swim together and give each other’s hair a bath.
Parton compared their river bath to a “bathtub,” jokeing about how filthy they were back then and how it would have left a ring around the Little Pigeon River. For them, taking a river bath was a midsummer rite.
Every member of the household would have a pan of water to wash as much as possible in the winter. Parton answered Grobel’s question about how frequently she and her family took winter baths by saying:
“Well, as the saying goes, we bathed once a week whether we needed to or not.”
Parton started to value bathing more after she started high school. She would bathe every night because her younger siblings would not wash their hands before bed. She disclosed:
The children urinated on me each night. In the bed, we slept three and four. Every night, I would wash. The kids would also wet on me as soon as I went to bed, so I would have to get up in the morning and repeat the entire process.”
On November 5, 2019, in New York City, Dolly Parton is present at the We Are Family Foundation event held at Hammerstein Ballroom. | Found via Getty Images
Parton was not hesitant to express her opinions, explaining that while getting peed on would seem unhygienic to some, the urine actually provided some warmth during the winter.
She remembered how cold it would get at home because she lived in the mountains, and she even mentioned that it was almost enjoyable to get pissed on because the room was just as cold as the outside. They would all curl up in bed, she claimed.
distributing millions
Parton has said that her family is wealthy and content in other ways, despite their lack of material wealth. She became humble as she grew older, and even after becoming wealthy, she never stopped helping those in need, just like her family had done when she was younger. She said:
“My greatest love will always be my family.” Although it might occasionally get lost in the shuffle, family is a part of all I do.
Parton claimed that her family was the inspiration behind her music and that her theme park, Dollywood, and one of its acts, Dixie Stampede, are meant to be places where families can enjoy themselves and spend quality time together.
Parton is a self-made millionaire, with a projected net worth of $375 million in 2022 according to Forbes. Her theme park and ownership rights to music publishing were the main sources of her financial success.
In the 1970s, she refused to share the critically praised song “I Will Always Love You” with Elvis Presley, one of the nearly 3,000 songs that she is in ownership of. When Whitney Houston performed the song in the 1990s, this choice paid off.
In addition, Parton is paid a publishing fee for songs that are sold, aired, or featured in motion pictures. According to Forbes, her songs are valued at $150 million, while her royalties have brought in between $6 and $8 million.
But the source of the music icon’s enormous wealth is her well-known theme park, Dollywood, which is one of Tennessee’s most popular travel destinations. According to reports, it earns $3 million annually.
When the theme park was still known as Pigeon Forge in 1968, the country music artist made an investment in it. Later, she gave it a new name, “Dollywood,” a pun on the word “Hollywood.” There is a water park and a hotel in the park.
In addition, Parton just unveiled Doggy Parton, a pun on her well-known name, as a new business. The business, which makes apparel and toys for dogs, was founded because of her passion for animals.
Parton learned the value of sharing her accomplishment with others from her early experiences. She is a businessman and singer in addition to being involved in a number of social and humanitarian organizations and having given millions of dollars to people in need.
In order to collect $13 million for the survivors of the East Tennessee wildfires that devastated Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg in 2016, Parton teamed together with a group of musicians.
At “Smoky Mountains Rise: A Benefit for the My People Fund,” other well-known performers included Chris Stapelton, Kenny Rogers, Lauren Alaina, Alison Krauss, Reba McEntire, Cyndi Lauper, and Chris Young.
Following her niece’s leukemia treatment at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Parton donated $1 million to the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital in 2017.
Apart from extending monetary support to individuals impacted by natural calamities, Parton made a noteworthy impact on the healthcare industry through her magnanimous financial contributions.
When she gave $1 million to vaccine research in 2020 amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, which affected people all over the world, she made headlines. Her input was useful in developing the Moderna vaccine.
Parton’s unwavering commitment to advancing early childhood literacy is another well-known quality. Each month, she provides over a million youngsters with free books through her nonprofit initiative, Imagination Library.
In order to assist kids in learning to read and write, Parton and Robert Lee established a non-profit organization in 1995, drawing inspiration from her father’s personal experience with illiteracy. Although it began in eastern Tennessee, it has expanded to assist children in all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia.
Other nations, like Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, have also been affected by the literacy initiative. Parton announced at the Library of Congress in 2018 that the initiative has distributed its 100 millionth book.
When the campaign first began, Parton just wanted to support her father and her hometown; she had no idea it would become so popular. She said with joy, “But then it just took its own wings, and I guess it was meant to be.”
Parton was also pleased that her father was quite proud of having contributed something valuable. Before he died in 2000, he had the opportunity to witness the results of their labor.
Her goals for the Imagination Library are also very lofty. She acknowledged having lofty goals and wishing to donate one billion books in her lifetime.
Despite having a difficult upbringing, Parton never lost sight of the value of community and family. She made the most of her riches by giving millions of dollars a year to a range of humanitarian causes, such as health, education, and disaster relief.
Her lowly beginnings instilled in her the virtues of perseverance, hard effort, and the unifying power of music. She also recalls the love, laughter, and happiness that characterized her childhood home and the family who stood by her side no matter what as she reflects on her life.
We Sent Money to Our Son for College Tuition – One Day, We Discovered He Wasn’t Even Enrolled and Lived in an Old Trailer
As parents, we’d always believed in our son. He was the perfect child—brilliant, and destined for greatness. So when we sent him off to college with thousands of dollars for tuition, we never questioned his progress. Until the day we found out he had been lying to us all along.
From the moment Jason was born, he was our pride and joy. Growing up, he wasn’t just “our son”; he was the son every family in the neighborhood admired. He excelled at everything he touched.
Boy receiving an award in school | Source: Midjourney
Straight A’s? Easy. Captain of the basketball team? Of course. And his charm? It was magnetic. Parents would nudge their kids, saying, “Be more like Jason.” He was handsome, polite, and ambitious. At least, that’s what we thought.
For as long as I can remember, Jason always had a soft spot for animals.
If a stray cat wandered into the yard, it was Jason who would sneak it milk. When our dog, Max, got sick, Jason stayed up all night by his side, even though he was only eight.
Young boy bonding with his dog | Source: Midjourney
“Mom, I want to help animals when I grow up,” he said once, eyes gleaming as he watched Max wag his tail weakly.
“I want to be like Uncle Tom,” he insisted.
I remember laughing softly, tousling his hair. “That’s sweet, honey, but you can help more people if you become a businessman like your dad.”
Young boy bonding with his dog while chatting with his mom. | Source: Midjourney
My husband, Daniel, and I had always envisioned Jason as the future head of our family business. He had all the qualities of a leader.
So, when the time came to choose a college, we insisted on management. Jason hesitated at first, but eventually, he agreed. I thought we had his future all mapped out.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Boy standing at a college building | Source: Midjourney
It started innocently enough. Jason was two years into college, supposedly studying business management at a prestigious university. We sent him money every month for tuition and living expenses.
Life was busy for Daniel and me; running a company doesn’t leave much room for doubt. So, we never questioned anything.
But then, everything unraveled.
Woman in her car, talking on the phone | Source: Midjourney
A business trip took me to the city where Jason’s college was located. I was excited to surprise him. “I’ll swing by his dorm, maybe take him out to dinner,” I told Daniel over the phone.
When I arrived at the admissions office to get his dorm address, the woman behind the counter gave me a confused look. “Jason Reed? I’m sorry, but we don’t have anyone by that name enrolled here.”
I froze, sure there was some mistake. “Check again,” I insisted, my voice trembling.
She checked. And then she checked again. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but there’s no record of a Jason Reed. Are you sure this is the right university?”
Woman talking to a receptionist | Source: Midjourney
My stomach turned. I thanked her stiffly and left the office, my mind racing.
I called Jason immediately. “Hey, Mom!” he answered, cheerful as ever.
“Hi, sweetheart,” I said, forcing my voice to stay steady. “I’m in town for a meeting and thought I’d surprise you. How about coffee?”
There was a pause. “Uh, yeah, sure! Let’s meet at the café near campus.”
Something was off, but I brushed it aside. When I saw him at the café, he looked as polished as ever—relaxed, confident, and full of that same charm that had everyone fooled.
Mother and son at a coffee shop | Source: Midjourney
“How’s school?” I asked casually.
“Great! Classes are tough, but I’m learning a lot,” he said without missing a beat. “Midterms are coming up, so I’ve been studying nonstop.”
He lied so smoothly, that I almost believed him. But the admissions clerk’s words echoed in my head. He’s not enrolled here.
When we hugged goodbye, I slipped my fitness bracelet into his jacket pocket. It had GPS. If Jason was lying to me, I needed to know where he was really going.
Mother and son hugging | Source: Midjourney
That evening, I followed the bracelet’s signal. It led me far from campus, away from the bustling city, to the outskirts of town. The smooth tarmac gave way to a dirt road lined with towering trees. The GPS beeped faster as I approached a small clearing.
And there it was—a rusty old trailer, half-hidden among the trees. The roof sagged under the weight of mismatched patches, and the whole place looked like it might collapse in a strong wind.
An old trailer in the woods | Source: Midjourney
I parked my car and waited, gripping the steering wheel so tightly. Ten minutes passed before Jason appeared, walking up the dirt path with a bag slung over his shoulder.
My heart stopped.
I watched as he knocked on the trailer door. When it creaked open, another figure stepped out. It was my brother, Tom.
“Tom?” I whispered to myself, shocked. I hadn’t seen him in over a year. Tom, had always been a wanderer. While Daniel and I built a stable life, Tom flitted between jobs but finally became a veterinarian.
Man standing at the door of an old trailer | Source: Midjourney
Without thinking, I got out of the car and marched toward the trailer.
“Jason!” I called, my voice sharp.
He spun around, eyes wide. “Mom?! What are you doing here?”
“I should be asking you that!” I yelled. “What is this place? Why aren’t you at school? And why is he here?”
Tom leaned against the doorframe, smirking. “Nice to see you too, sis.”
“Stay out of this, Tom,” I snapped, glaring at him.
Jason stepped forward, hands up. “Mom, I can explain.”
Son explaining himself to his mother | Source: Midjourney
“No,” I interrupted, my voice trembling. “I’ve been sending you money—our money—for tuition, thinking you were in college. Were you ever enrolled?”
Jason hesitated, then shook his head. “No.”
The word hit me like a slap. “Then where has all the money gone?”
Jason glanced at Tom, then back at me. “I’ve been using it to fund something…important. Uncle Tom’s been helping me.”
My gaze snapped to Tom, who looked unbothered. “Helping you do what?”
Man standing at the door of an old trailer | Source: Midjourney
Jason took a deep breath. “I’m building a veterinary clinic.”
“What?”
“I’ve been dreaming about this my whole life, Mom. Uncle Tom had the skills and connections to help me get started. I’m using the money to buy equipment and renovate a building nearby. Once it’s ready, he’s going to be the head vet.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “You lied to us! You’ve been funneling money to this—to him?” I pointed at Tom, whose smirk only deepened.
“Mom, this is my calling,” Jason said, his voice steady. “You and Dad wanted me to take over the business, but that’s not who I am. I want to help animals.”
Son talking to his mom | Source: Midjourney
“You betrayed us!” I shouted, my voice cracking. “You’ll never see another penny from me again.”
I turned and stormed back to my car, tears blurring my vision.
Three months passed, and I didn’t speak to Jason. The silence was unbearable, but I couldn’t bring myself to call him. Then, one day, an envelope arrived in the mail.
The letter read: “Dear Mrs. Reed, Thank you for believing in your son and financing his veterinary clinic. Recently, my dog was hit by a car, and your son saved her life. If it weren’t for him—and for you—she wouldn’t be here today.”
I stared at the letter, my hands shaking.
Woman reading a letter | Source: Midjourney
Over the next few weeks, more letters and emails poured in. Each one told a similar story: animals saved, families reunited, lives changed—all thanks to Jason.
I couldn’t take it anymore.
One night, unable to sleep, I found myself searching for Jason’s Veterinary Clinic online. The result popped up instantly, complete with photos of a small building with bright green awnings and a cheerful sign. My breath caught when I saw Jason in the photo, smiling beside a family and their golden retriever.
I grabbed my keys.
Woman’s hand grabbing car keys from the table | Source: Midjourney
The clinic looked just like the pictures. The parking lot was busy, the hum of life evident in the barking of dogs and the chatter of pet owners. My legs felt like jelly as I walked to the front door.
Inside, the first person I saw was Tom. He looked up from a clipboard and froze.
“Well, if it isn’t my sister,” he said, raising an eyebrow. “To what do we owe the honor?”
“I got your messages,” I said, holding back tears.
“My messages?” He smirked, crossing his arms. “Oh, you mean the flood of letters from people thanking you for something you tried to stop.”
Veterinary doctor having a conversation with his sister in his office | Source: Midjourney
I flinched, but he didn’t stop.
“You wrote him off, but look around.” He gestured to the clinic bustling with life. “This is Jason. This is what you didn’t see. You were so busy planning his life, you never stopped to ask what he wanted.”
“Where is he?” I asked, ignoring the sting of his words.
Tom nodded toward a back room. “Go see for yourself.”
Veterinary doctor talking to his sister in his office | Source: Midjourney
On the other side, Jason bent over an examination table, gently examining a scruffy dog while speaking softly to a tearful woman.
“Mom?” he said, noticing me. His voice held equal parts surprise and fear.
I didn’t speak at first, the lump in my throat too heavy. Finally, I managed, “You did this?”
Jason nodded slowly. “Yeah. I did.”
His confidence wavered as he spoke. “I know I hurt you. I know I lied, but—”
“Jason,” I interrupted, my voice breaking. “I was wrong.”
He blinked.
Mother and son having a conversation | Source: Midjourney
I took a shaky step forward. “This is your calling. It’s everything you said it was. And I couldn’t see it. I tried to control you, to make you into someone you weren’t, but…” My voice cracked. “You’ve built something beautiful. Something that saves lives. I’m so proud of you.”
Jason’s eyes glistened as he stepped toward me. “That means everything, Mom.”
Behind us, Tom’s voice rang out, amused but warm. “Look at that. Turns out we were right all along.”
I turned back to Jason, my heart finally at peace.
“Promise me one thing,” I said.
“Anything,” he replied.
“Don’t ever stop being this person.”
Young veterinary doctor talking to his mother | Source: Midjourney
If you enjoyed this story, you might love this one too: My stepmom took $5,000 from my college fund for her veneers — then karma struck back.
This work is inspired by real events and people, but it has been fictionalized for creative purposes. Names, characters, and details have been changed to protect privacy and enhance the narrative. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
The author and publisher make no claims to the accuracy of events or the portrayal of characters and are not liable for any misinterpretation. This story is provided as “is,” and any opinions expressed are those of the characters and do not reflect the views of the author or publisher.
Leave a Reply