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Country music legend Dolly Parton passed away on Tuesday at the age of 80.
Photo by David Redfern/Redferns
Farewell notes for ‘9 to 5’ icon
We lost country queen Dolly Parton on Tuesday. I knew Dolly well. Here’s some of the things she told me over the years:
In 2022: “I often get up 3 a.m. because God gets up early.”
Years earlier: “My husband calls me Catfish.”
One of my favorites from 1989: “My idea of a heavenly Christmas is being in bed with my husband with no phone calls for five days.”
Another time, “I know what it’s like to be dropped.”
Recently, it was: “Like me, 86th Street is getting a makeover.”
And so you know: “I refrigerate my wigs.”
Good-humored
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“My Christmas gift will be to Our Lady of Unbelievable Proportions.”
“My chestnuts won’t roast by any open fire.”
“I want to get it off my chest like silicone.”
“I was once voted the Best Bosom at the Oscars.”
In the 1990s, she said: “Clinton thinks seeing the Grand Tetons means going to a Dolly Parton concert.” And, “The book ‘Clinton Confidential’ is enough to turn my wig gray.”
She made do: “As a youngster in Tennessee I painted my lips with mercurochrome and wet berries.” And, “I still like to pee off the porch.”
She also told me years ago: “I never planned on staying home with kids. I’m devoted to one man.”
“A drag queen could make me look bald,” she quipped in 2007.
In the early ’80s, it was: “My new waistline’s about 20 inches.”
On marriage, she said: “Gay folks should be allowed to be as miserable as the rest of us.”
Famous "Dollyisms"
- “I kind of patterned myself after what they called the town tramp in my hometown, when I was little . . . There was this woman that was very much a loose woman, but I didn’t know what that meant and I just told her how beautiful she was, ’cause she had this beautiful yellow hair.”
- “When I arrived in LA in the ’80s, I started sleeping with my makeup on, partly because of the earthquakes . . . there are cameras out there.”
- “The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.”
- “It’s hard to be a diamond in a rhinestone world.”
- “I am a self-made woman, and I have the doctor bills to prove it.”
- “I’m not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I’m not dumb — and I’m not blonde either.”
- “It costs a lot of money to look this cheap.”
In 2002, in one of my many full columns about her, she loved reading that “Parts of Dolly Parton are a wonder of modern science” and “Dolly has rubber plantations working double-time just on her needs.”
She was a cup of ambition
In May 2009, a headline on one column read “Good golly, Miss Dolly, Wanted for a revival.” A now abbreviated version said: “Attention Dolly Parton reps. B’way producer James L. Nederlander wants Dolly for ‘Dolly.’ Three cities. New York, Chicago, LA. Ten weeks each. Percentage, plus salary. Enough to keep her in wigs for a really long time. Call her.”
Ahead of the Tony Awards for her “9 to 5” musical, she told me: “I don’t even know if I’m nervous or not. I mean, who’s had the time to even see this production. I’ve been so rushed. I’m lucky I could even get myself together. Couldn’t do it if I didn’t wear wigs. I’ve been running straight through nonstop since early today. Got up 5:30 this morning, did ‘The View’ and never stopped once. All I did to get myself dressed for tonight’s opening was manage to jazz up my makeup. It’s been on all day. Did it myself early this morning. I always do my own makeup. I ran home to change and throw on a little more paint, touch up the makeup with some more gloss and glitter — and here I am.”
Golly Dolly — we all loved you.
About a today’s movie star: “Oh, please, she’s had so many face-lifts this year that she had to go to a proctologist for an ear infection.”
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.
English (US)