Someone who can inspire tributes from as far apart as the Empire State Building, George the Stourbridge Station Cat and the city of Melbourne has surely led a life worth living. I can only bow in appreciation to Ms Dolly Parton and thank her for a lifetime of music and caring.
On hearing of her passing, I was gripped by a feeling of the air being knocked out of me. Never a country fan, I grew to respect her philanthropy and listen with open ears to her songs as an adult. And Jolene is just a bop, no matter what genre you like. I felt sad I never got to see her and then remembered I had, after a fashion.
Back in December 2020 when much of life was lived online, Dolly appeared from her home in Tennessee in a programme streamed from none other than the British Library for a conversation about her Imagination Library. We got to see her, perched daintily in her chair, hair immaculate, hands wrapped in fingerless gloves, as she discussed this programme I had never heard of that had run for years sending free books out to kids across the world. She was funny, she was sassy, she was Dolly. It was a great night and I was glad I got to see her in some capacity. Be more Dolly.