After her high school graduation, she moved to Nashville in 1964. She played in clubs and wrote songs for other artists. She told PEOPLE in 2012, “My songs got me out of the mountains and took me everywhere I’ve wanted to go.” Her big break came when hired her to be his sidekick on The Porter Wagoner Show. He helped her land a record deal, but her early successes were all duets with her costar.
“I’ll always be a country musician because I’m a country girl,” she told PEOPLE in 1975. “My style is my soul and my feelings. I’ll tell the world in my songs what I wouldn’t have told my mother.”
Dolly Parton attends an event, benefitting Saint John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, at Avco Theaters
Dolly Parton in 1984.Pierre-Gilles Vidoli/WWD/Penske Media via Getty
In 1971, she had her first country No. 1 with “Joshua.” “Coat of Many Colors,” released the same year, reached No. 4. Then in 1973, she released “Jolene,” which was a country No. 1 and also charted on Billboard‘s Hot 100.
Parton stopped appearing on the TV show in 1974, and s a goodbye to her creative partner, Wagoner. “When I got ready to go, it was not a good scene. So I went home and that song just came to me. The next morning I said, ‘This is how I feel.’ Tears were rolling down his face,” she told PEOPLE in 2012.
She told PEOPLE in 2015 about the first time she heard Houston’s version of the song on the radio. “It was a worldwide thing. It was in a movie; it was No. 1. I thought, ‘Wow. I wrote that little song,’ “ she said. “That’s when I felt my worth as a songwriter. I thought, ‘This is my gift, and I’m going to do the best I can with it.’ ”
Musician Dolly Parton with Miss Piggy on ‘Dolly’, 1988.
Miss Piggy and Dolly Parton in 1988.Disney General Entertainment Content/Getty
Parton continued to enjoy success with hits like “Light of a Clear Blue Morning,” “Here You Come Again,” “Two Doors Down,” “It’s All Wrong, But It’s All Right” and “You’re the Only One.”
By the end of the ’70s, Parton’s ambitions reached beyond Nashville; some worried she was leaving country music behind. She said in 1977, “I want people to know there is a lot more to me — good or bad — than they’ve seen so far. All I’m askin’ is a chance to prove it. . . . . I’m not leavin’ Nashville. Roots are important to me, and my roots are here.”
Parton’s movie career began in 1980 when she starred in 9 to 5 Her theme song for the movie became her first No. 1 single on the Hot 100. The costars became lifelong friends, and Parton later made a guest appearance on their Netflix TV series Grace and Frankie.
Dolly Parton at Dollywood in 1988.
Dolly Parton at Dollywood in 1988.Ron Davis/Getty
In 1982, she played a madam in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas alongside Burt Reynolds. “I make a better whore than a secretary,” she told PEOPLE in 1982. Parton also starred in 1984’s, 1989’s Steel Magnolias and 2012’s Joyful Noise.
