Remembering Dolly Parton (1946-2026)
Dolly Parton died August 25 in Nashville. She was 80.
The image will do most of the remembering. The hair, the lashes, the rhinestones, the laugh. She assembled every bit of it herself, on purpose, and she was funnier about it than anyone else in the room, which gave the world permission to underestimate her. That was always the trick. The costume was loud enough to hold the eye, and while everyone was busy looking at it, she was building something else entirely.
What she built
More than 200 million free books mailed to children through her Imagination Library. A theme park that has employed her neighbors in the Smoky Mountains for forty years. A million dollars, given without a press conference, toward the research that became the Moderna vaccine. She never once made a performance out of the giving.
Why she keeps showing up in the studio
She is one of the easiest people alive to paint. The hair, the lashes, that smile. Four flat colors and everybody knows who it is from across the room. Warhol only got to Marilyn after she was gone. Dolly was here the whole time, changing the look every few years and giving anybody with a brush something new to work from. That is why she has been on this studio table more than almost anyone else, in silkscreen, spray paint and decoupage, on canvas, plywood and aluminum.
Dolly Parton, 1946-2026. Godspeed.