{"id":2651586,"date":"2026-08-29T07:20:02","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T11:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dolly-parton-tribute-to-an-american-icon\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T07:22:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T11:22:39","slug":"dolly-parton-tribute-to-an-american-icon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dolly-parton-tribute-to-an-american-icon\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolly Parton: Tribute to an American icon"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdolly-parton-tribute-to-an-american-icon%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2651586&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>This article explores the life, personality, adn enduring legacy of Dolly Parton. Although often thought of as an Aquarius, Parton was actually a capricorn, reflecting her hardworking nature and prolific output. Born in the Great Smoky Mountains on January 19, 1946, just before Aquarius season, she is portrayed as embodying qualities associated with both signs-she was a free spirit with an internal sense of independence and genuine warmth. The piece highlights her distinctive voice,her playful and baroque style,and her openness to cosmetic enhancements,all of which contribute to her unique charm and elegance. <\/p>\n<p>Parton&#8217;s authenticity is emphasized through her love of humor, her connection to her Tennessee roots, and her fierce independence-she was free in her choices and true to her land and traditions. Her ability to maintain a sense of detachment amid her warmth and public persona adds to her mystique, making her an almost mythic figure.The article notes her devotion to her home state, her philanthropy, and her impact on culture and entertainment, culminating in her recent passing at age 80 after a brief cancer battle. Her legacy is portrayed as one of universal reverence, symbolizing wealth, freedom, and the authentic, unwavering love for her roots.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<article class=\"fn-body\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/dolly-parton\/\">Dolly Parton<\/a> was not, as I always think of her, an Aquarius. She was technically a Capricorn, as befits her indefatigable work ethic and prodigious output. She was born in the Great Smoky Mountains, into the utterly vanished world that predated universal electrification, on Jan. 19, 1946, one day before Aquarius season officially begins. Whenever I am tempted to doubt the subtle science of planetary influences, bequeathed to us by Albumasar and practiced by his unlicensed successors in hair salons across this great nation, I remember that Parton was born on the Capricorn-Aquarius cusp. She died on Aug. 25 at age 80.<\/p>\n<section class=\"explore-more-section\" id=\"wex-recommended-widget\">\n<div class=\"magazine-container single\">\n<h1 class=\"magazine-title mt-2\">Recommended Stories<\/h1>\n<p>             <i class=\"fa-solid fa-play icon\"><\/i>         <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-grid\">\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/entertainment\/4705038\/nashville-airport-could-be-renamed-in-honor-of-dolly-parton\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Nashville airport could be renamed in honor of Dolly Parton<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/4703959\/kennedy-center-board-hold-off-adding-trump-name-facility-october\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Kennedy Center board will hold off on adding Trump\u2019s name to the facility until October<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/entertainment\/4703172\/cnn-picture-dolly-parton-impersonator-death-coverage\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>CNN uses picture of Dolly Parton impersonator during coverage of her death<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I always think of her, wrongly, as an Aquarius, because Aquarius is the water-bearer, the chosen symbol of enlightened utopias, the sign of all things airy and aloof, fluid and free. It is a sign for changelings, and people who believe they go through life escorted by angel protectors. You get a sense of this when you look at pictures of Parton before the final stretch of old age, and a cheerfully baroque attitude to cosmetic interventions masked the natural structure of her face: those fantastically fine, elfin bones, those wide or narrowed eyes whose natural resting point seemed to be something far in the distance that only she could see. Her voice was Aquarian too, in that it was filled with water: pure and clear, bubbling with life from a <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/tennessee\/\">Tennessee<\/a> mountain spring, enclosed in glass, and ringing with the unearthly trueness of the verillon \u2014\u00a0rippling and trilling, breaking on a joke like a river rock, refracting light.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-1\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-1\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-15\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-1\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If there is something uncouth in discussing Parton, <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/education\/4699922\/dolly-parton-proud-imagination-library-literacy-children-expanded-other-countries\/\">national treasure<\/a>, through the lens of <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >hair salon-style astrology<\/a>, I believe she would understand. She was an appreciator of feminine trivia, of <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=gTfvM_KukC4\">hair salons<\/a> themselves and all their associations, and a great reconciler of opposites and uniter of discordant registers. She was a woman, after all, whose love of plastic surgery seemed genuinely \u2014 and uniquely, despite various protestations and publicist talking points contending otherwise \u2014 borne of a sportive affection for the face and body the Almighty bestowed on her. She was a woman whose big-haired, white buckskin-fringed, rhinestone-covered tackiness achieved the final frontier of elegance: commanding poise and total ease in her own skin. And she was a woman who <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=iJEpoLeISCo\">loved a joke, especially if it was just a little at her own expense<\/a>. <\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\">Dolly Parton is seen Dollywood\u2019s Season Passholder and Media Day Parade on March 8, 2024, in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. (Amy Harris\/Invision\/AP)<\/p>\n<p>&#8221; data-large-file=&#8221;https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2026\/08\/localimages\/LA.Culture2.090226.jpg?w=696&#8243; height=&#8221;658&#8243; width=&#8221;1024&#8243; &#8220;https:><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dolly Parton is seen Dollywood\u2019s Season Passholder and Media Day Parade on March 8, 2024, in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. (Amy Harris\/Invision\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There is something real, something essential to Parton\u2019s magnetism, I think, that I am struggling to capture with my Aquarian misidentifications. For all her warmth, all her quick, responsive liveliness, there was a place deep in Parton\u2019s core that remained detached, that remained inaccessible and wholly her own. Her greatest hits bear this sense of detachment like a watermark. It is what makes them haunting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The narrator of the classic song \u201cJolene,\u201d despite her raw vulnerability, is clear-eyed to the point of ruthlessness. She lays out, point by point, the dimensions of her rival\u2019s beauty. She can quite appreciate where Jolene is coming from. She does not dispute Jolene\u2019s superior position of advantage, and she is indifferent to any question of her partner\u2019s agency or responsibilities. She knows exactly where she stands and wants one thing only. She zeroes in on it like a laser. She wants, despite all this, to keep her man.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-2\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-2\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-16\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-2\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/3132228\/dnc-delegates-disappointment-beyonce-no-show\/\">Beyonce<\/a> rewrote the song for her album <em>Cowboy Carter<\/em>, she <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/opinion\/2952542\/queen-bey-becomes-too-powerful-vulnerability-makes-jolene-iconic\/\">took a different tack<\/a>. There is no more merciless accounting, no more unconcerned abjection. It is the righteous warning of a woman who knows her rights and knows her worth and is prepared to insist on both. The result is a fine song in the tradition of \u201cFist City\u201d and \u201cYou Ain\u2019t Woman Enough to Take My Man.\u201d\u00a0 But it is no longer haunting. It is no longer Jolene.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\">(Photo by Owen Sweeney\/Invision\/AP)<\/p>\n<p>&#8221; data-large-file=&#8221;https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2026\/08\/localimages\/LA.Culture.090226.jpg?w=696&#8243; height=&#8221;658&#8243; width=&#8221;1024&#8243; &#8220;https:><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">(Photo by Owen Sweeney\/Invision\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Parton\u2019s version of \u201c<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pW2TgGy5gjY\">I Will Always Love You<\/a>,\u201d as opposed to Whitney Houston\u2019s inspired reinterpretation, the song\u2019s grand, affectionate magnanimity is inseparable from its lack of anguish. There are no tortured doubts here, no sense of loss, no irresolvable dilemmas. The singer will always love the man she is leaving precisely because no part of herself will be left behind with him. There is not a chance in hell you could make her stay. She is already warbling away, untroubled as a songbird.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When I watch videos of her hamming it up, with great delight in the process and to the great delight of the viewer, at the Grand Ole Opry or on <em>The Porter Wagoner Show<\/em>, she seems to have this same unfettered songbird quality. She would be equally at home, you feel, if one day she shook off the sequins, as lightly as drops of rain, and disappeared into the Smoky Mountains, to haunt the woods and secret places unseen with a voice like springtime.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-3\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-3\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-17\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-3\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Parton was <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/4699978\/dolly-parton-flags-half-staff-trump\/\">an American icon<\/a> because she had this essential quality of freedom, a quality wholly internal and independent of circumstances. Wherever she was, that was where she wanted to be most. Whatever she did, that was what she wanted to do. However she lived, it was because she thought it best. Parton was free. She was free in a way we now associate with the vanished mountain men. It was how she could be what she was: a one-man woman with a body for sin; a connoisseur of dirty jokes who would not swear or take the Lord\u2019s name in vain on <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/tv\/\">television<\/a>; an octogenarian in hot pants whose feelings, you felt, it would be impossible to hurt. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/4699862\/dolly-parton-dies-at-age-80\/\">DOLLY PARTON DIES AT AGE 80 AFTER \u2018BRIEF BATTLE WITH CANCER\u2019 <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Improbable as it would seem absent the evidence, this core of self-possessed freedom did not translate to a restless, high-flying, celebrity rootlessness. She was not the kind of person for whom home is merely whichever<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/real-estate\/\"> real estate<\/a> portfolio asset \u2014 the Malibu mansion, the Montana ski chalet, the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/new-york\/\">New York<\/a> brownstone \u2014 you momentarily inhabit. Parton\u2019s home was Tennessee. She introduced its traditions to the world. She elegized its past and lyricized its beauties. She spent her life and, most importantly, kept her money there, in both business ventures and a string of philanthropic schemes too long to enumerate. <\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-4\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-4\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-25\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-4\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This, and not merely her once-in-a-century talent, is what has made her so big, so grand, so out of scale to reality. It is why she is the object of an impersonal reverence \u2014 impersonal, because it is truly universal. It is why she has become an unfurled flag, beyond critique, beyond any response more equivocal than love. She was as rich as all Americans hope to be, and she was as free as all Americans think themselves. And what she chose, in total allegiance, in ceaseless hustle, in generosity and joy, was the rocky land that gave her life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Clare Coffey is a writer from Pennsylvania.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-5\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-5\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-26\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-5\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dolly Parton, often mistaken for an Aquarius, was actually a Capricorn, reflecting her relentless work ethic and prolific career. Born in the Great Smoky Mountains on January 19, 1946-just before Aquarius season-the subtle influence of planetary signs reminds me she was born on the cusp. She passed away at age 80 on August 25<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4137,"featured_media":2651587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/LA.Culture2.090226.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651,538],"tags":[6412,9610,3863,52328,9122],"class_list":["post-2651586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","category-washington-examiner","tag-country","tag-legend","tag-music","tag-rockstar","tag-tribute"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/LA.Culture2.090226.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2651586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2651586"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2651586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2651590,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2651586\/revisions\/2651590"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2651587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2651586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2651586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2651586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}