One of the first movies I remember watching is 9 to 5, which was on HBO a lot back in the 1980s. It was Dolly Parton’s first movie role even though she had appeared on TV before.
Like myself, she grew up in Appalachia even though eastern Tennessee was a lot more rural than where I lived. Her father known as “Lee” was illiterate while she would be called one of the smartest people around. She would go on to use her money to donate free books to many children over the years.
There’s probably not one bad thing you can say about her. Well, Burt Reynolds didn’t get along with her on the set of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas but Reynolds didn’t hardly get along with anyone aside from his own circle of friends.
Her role as Doralee in 9 to 5 was one of memorable as a secretary to the “sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot” that was Frank Hart (Dabney Coleman). Her Southern accent seemed to fit in well among Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. Fonda was coming off her second Best Actress Oscar and Tomlin was already a comedy TV icon who didn’t put up with the “Boy’s Club.” It was a perfect combination and a sign that the 1980s were going to be a little different. Well, it was a start at least.
There’s a lot of things others have said about Parton but as news of her death at 80 spread. Last year her husband, Carl Dean, passed away. They had been married since the mid-1960s. Despite her appearance and figure, she refused multiple requests to pose nude. After losing her husband, it was probably only going to be a matter of time. You spend 60 years with someone, it’s difficult to carry on.
Over the years, she wrote and recorded countless songs and appeared in movies. Some good like Steel Magnolias and some bad like Rhinestone. Recently, a snippet from her movie Straight Talk has been making the rounds. She plays a regular woman who finds herself a talk show therapist for giving atraight no-nonsense advice on a Chicago radio station. She tells a man who thinks he’s a woman that the only advice she can give is to never perm her own hair and don’t wear high heels on a soggy ground. At first it seems like she’s totally misunderstood the caller but there’s a “Live the life that makes you happy” component to her response. And this movie was made by Disney in the early 1990s.
When Three 6 Mafia won the Best Original Song Oscar for “It’s Hard Out There For a Pimp,” Parton was in the audience cheering and clapping. She later sent them a congratulatory letter as they were from Tennessee too. She did receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her charity work. It seemed charity was one of her biggest achievements. She donated $10 million from royalties for Whitney Houston’s cover of “I Will Always Love You” to black colleges and students, as well as other community projects.
She had 11 other siblings and said they had to learn the concept and value of sharing early. We were all fortunate to have shared our time with her on this Earth.
Zane Says 