Voice 1
Welcome to Spotlight. I’m Megan Nollet.
Voice 2
And I’m Colin Lowther. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
Click here to follow along with this program on YouTube.
Voice 1
Her family was poor. Her mother knew she needed a coat for the winter. But they did not have the money to buy her a coat. Her mother took old pieces of material that were different colors. She sewed the different pieces together with thread. She made a coat for her daughter. The little girl proudly wore her new coat to school. She showed it to all the children. She told them her mother had made it for her. She said it reminded her of the story in the Christian Bible of Joseph who wore a coat of many colors. But the other children laughed at her coat. They knew it was just old pieces of material sewn together. It was not a new coat. They did not think it looked good. But the little girl was still proud of it. She thought it was the most beautiful coat in the world because her mother had made it for her.
Voice 2
Today’s Spotlight looks at the famous singer Dolly Parton. Parton sang country music. Country music started in the southern United States in the early 20th century. The songs celebrate small-town life in southern cities and states. The stories often deal with love, loss, and faith.
Voice 1
Parton was born in 1946. She grew up in a small, two-room wood house in the Great Smoky Mountains in the state of Tennessee. The little house had a room to prepare food and one bedroom that Parton shared with her parents and eleven brothers and sisters. Parton’s house had no electricity or running water. Parton and her family caught fireflies in glass containers. Fireflies are beetles rather than true flies. Fireflies make a soft light. The Parton family used the fireflies they caught for lights around the house at night.
Voice 2
Parton’s father, Robert Lee, was a farmer. Parton later said that her father was the hardest worker she ever met. Her mother, Avie Lee, cooked, cleaned, and took care of the children. She also taught Parton to sing. Parton began singing on their front steps. At six years old, Parton started singing in their church.
Voice 1
There were several talented musicians in Parton’s family. Her great-grandfather and grandfather were both skilled musicians. Her mother’s brother, Bill Owens, played an instrument called the guitar.
Voice 2
Owens was a singer and songwriter. He taught Parton how to play guitar when she was eight years old. Owens got Parton the chance to perform on a local radio show called the Cas Walker Farm and Home Hour. Later, the show became a television program. Parton became well known in the area. Owens and Parton started writing songs together. Parton said:
Voice 3
“He taught me the guitar because he saw early on that I was serious about my singing.”
Voice 1
A local record company named Goldband Records asked Parton to record the song “Puppy Love” in their recording studio. The success of this song led to Parton performing at the Grand Ole Opry for the first time in 1959. She was 13 years old.
Voice 2
Parton had dreamed of singing at the Grand Ole Opry since she was a little girl. The Grand Ole Opry is the longest-running live radio broadcast in United States history. It started in 1925. For generations, families gathered around their radios to listen to the live performances at the Grand Ole Opry. Many singers who sang at the Grand Ole Opry went on to become famous. Parton later said:
Voice 3
“It was always my dream to be on the Opry. It is special to me. It is the church of my heart. If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.”
Voice 1
After Parton finished high school, she and Owens moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to sing and write songs. On her first day in Nashville, Parton met Carl Dean outside of the Wishy Washy Laundromat, a place where she washed her clothes. Parton and Dean dated for two years before getting married in 1966.
Voice 2
Parton and Owens continued to write songs. They performed often around Nashville. They signed an agreement to write songs for Combine Music. They wrote the song “Put It Off Until Tomorrow” which Bill Phillips sang. It became a popular song on the Billboard Country Chart, a listing of the top country music songs.
Voice 1
Parton and Owens wrote several other popular songs, or hits, for other recording artists. In 1967, Porter Wagoner asked Parton to join his television program, The Porter Wagoner Show. 45,000,000 people across the United States watched his show every week.
Voice 2
Norma Jean sang with Wagoner for years on his show. She was very popular. She left the show after getting married. She wanted to make more time for her marriage. Wagoner replaced Jean with Parton.
Voice 1
Parton sang with a pure, clean voice that many people liked. She smiled and had fun. She was full of energy. People also liked that Parton had grown up poor in the mountains of Tennessee. They could relate to her. They felt like she was one of them. Parton did not seem like a singer who only cared about becoming rich and famous. She cared about the people listening to her music.
Voice 2
For seven years, Parton performed with Wagoner all over the United States. Parton was thankful for this. She won many followers because of their show. Wagoner also helped Parton get a recording agreement with the company RCA Victor. They sang many songs together on her first album, or a collection of songs.
Voice 1
In 1973, Parton wrote one of her most successful songs, “I Will Always Love You.” She wrote it for Wagoner because she decided to leave The Porter Wagoner Show. Parton was ready to perform on her own. “I Will Always Love You” became the most popular country music song in the United States.
Voice 2
Almost twenty years later, singer Whitney Houston recorded her version of Parton’s song “I Will Always Love You.” It became an even bigger hit for Houston. The song spent 14 weeks as the most popular song in the United States. It became one of the best-selling songs in the history of United States music. It reminded everyone of what a talented songwriter Parton was.
Voice 1
Parton had great success in the 1970s. Her songs “Jolene” and “Here You Come Again” were very popular. She also wrote a song called “Coat of Many Colors.” It was about when she was little and her mother made her a coat out of different pieces of material. Parton’s fans loved the song because many of them also grew up poor. They liked Parton’s honesty and her respect for her mother.
Voice 2
In 1980, Parton became a film star. She acted in a film called 9 to 5 with actresses Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. It was about women not getting the same chances in the workplace as men. The film was funny but also had a powerful message. It was very successful. Even though Parton had never acted in a film before, film reviewers and fans loved her performance. Famous film reviewer Roger Ebert wrote:
Voice 4
“Dolly Parton contains so much energy, so much life, that watching her do anything in this film is a pleasure.”
Voice 1
Parton wrote the main song for the film 9 to 5. It was also called “9 to 5” and became one of Parton’s biggest hits. It was popular with fans of all kinds of music. It became the most popular song in the United States.
Voice 2
Three years later, Parton sang a song with Kenny Rogers called “Islands in the Stream” that became one of the biggest hits of her life. It was the first song in history to reach the number one position for three different music listings at the same time: the Billboard Hot 100, Hot Country Songs, and Adult Contemporary. Many years later, Country Music Television asked fans to choose the greatest country duet sung by two people. They chose “Islands in the Stream.”
Voice 1
Parton acted in several other popular films and television programs like Steel Magnolias and Hannah Montana. She acted, wrote songs, recorded albums, and performed shows around the world for the rest of her life.
Voice 2
Parton wrote 3,000 songs. She recorded 66 albums. She received the National Medal of Arts and the Kennedy Center Honors. She was chosen for the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She set 11 Guinness World Records, including the most popular songs by a female artist on the United States Hot Country Songs Chart – an amazing 113!
Voice 1
But Parton believed the most important work she did was outside of music. She tried to help people as much as possible. She started the Dolly Parton Imagination Library to help children learn to read. Her program gave out 300,000,000 free books to children from birth to age five. Parton dedicated the library to her father, who never learned to read or write. She posted on Facebook:
Voice 3
“My daddy just loved it when all the little kids would call me ‘the Book Lady,’ That meant more to him than my success as a musical star.”
Voice 2
Parton started the Dollywood Foundation and Buddy Program which offered $500 to any student in her home community in Tennessee who stayed in school. The number of Tennessee high school students in her community who stopped school early fell from 35% to 6%. She gave money to students who completed high school and wanted to attend college.
Voice 1
Parton started an amusement park with fun rides and games called Dollywood in East Tennessee where she grew up. Dollywood creates an estimated $1,800,000,000 each year for the East Tennessee economy. Thousands of local people have jobs because of Dollywood. Millions of families visit Dollywood each year.
Voice 2
Parton and her husband, Dean, were married for almost sixty years. He was a private man and was happy to let the world watch only her. He did not need people to look at him. Dean died in 2025. Parton joined him a year later, dying from cancer at the age of 80.
Voice 1
Parton’s fans remember her beautiful songs. Female musicians remember her influence. Children who read the free books Parton gave them remember how she changed their lives. Families who were in need remember the help Parton offered so many times. Women remember her message of strength and equality that encourages them not to give up. The world remembers the small woman with the big hair from the Great Smoky Mountains who never forgot where she came from. Parton always remained thankful for everything she received. It did not matter if it was the chance to sing for millions of people or a simple coat of many colors her mother once made for her.
Voice 2
Which one of Dolly Parton’s songs is your favorite? Did you know she owned Dollywood? Have you ever wanted to be a singer? Which do you admire more—her singing talents and professional accomplishments or her care for children’s reading, families in need, and support for students? You can leave a comment on our website at www.spotlightenglish.com. You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and X. You can also get Spotlight episodes delivered directly to your Android or Apple device through our free official Spotlight English app.
Voice 1
The writer of this episode was Peter Anderson. The producer was Michio Ozaki. The voices you heard were from the United States and the United Kingdom. All quotes were adapted for this episode and voiced by Spotlight. No AI or artificial intelligence was used in this episode. Spotlight episodes are written, voiced, and produced by real people for real people, no matter where in the world they live. This episode is called, “Dolly Parton: The Queen of Country Music.”
Voice 2
We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight episode. Goodbye.
Questions:
Which one of Dolly Parton’s songs is your favorite? Did you know she owned Dollywood? Have you ever wanted to be a singer? Which do you admire more—her singing talents and professional accomplishments or her care for children’s reading, families in need, and support for students?
