Heaven has a new angel; Dolly Parton, 1946-2026

I've been neglecting the blog lately. My remunerative work, my labor of love for the Brooklyn Heights Blog, and other things have kept me busy. My last two posts, dated July 8 and 27, were obituaries, the first of a cat and the second of a friend of over sixty years. I was hoping that my next post wouldn't be another obituary. My wife quotes the folk wisdom that deaths come in threes.

"Coat of Many Colors" is my favorite of Dolly Parton's songs. I had assumed it was autobiographical until I learned she was one of twelve siblings. Could her mother have had the time to put so much effort into making a garment for one of them? Then again, I don't doubt that her mother was a remarkable woman. Another of her songs, "Jolene," her biggest hit, is by her own telling autobiographical. It's about a bank teller she suspected of flirting with her husband, Carl Dean, whom she met outside a Nashville laundromat the day after her high school graduation. They married two years later, and their marriage lasted almost sixty years. He died on March 3, 2025.

There's little I can write that would add meaningfully to the outpouring of praise and remembrances that quickly followed the news of her passing. I did write about her on this blog in a review of Run Rose Run, the novel she co-authored with James Patterson. In that post I noted that I first heard of Dolly when a Rolling Stone article mentioned that Jerry Garcia admired her singing. I wrote in my earlier piece that I didn't like her voice as much as those with what I called the "harder edged" quality exemplified by Emmylou Harris or Lacy J. Dalton. Since then I've come to appreciate its delicate, airy quality to which I've given the term "willowy." 

For a good summation of what made her great, I turn to Robert Reich, whom those who follow me on Facebook know I admire:

To me, Dolly Parton represented the very best in America. Her kindness, compassion, laughter, love of life, hardscrabble beginnings, humanity, ambition, and extraordinary talent were what this country is — or should be.

Farewell, Dolly. Your willowy voice will be a welcome addition to the heavenly choir.