A complete timeline of Dolly Parton’s inspiring life and career

• Before Dolly Parton was a country megastar, she grew up in a poor family in rural Tennessee.
• She wrote her first song at age 5 and played her first show at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry at 13.
• Her scheduled Las Vegas residency has been postponed.

Dolly Parton’s journey from a humble two-room cabin in rural Tennessee to the bright lights of country music stardom is one of the most inspiring stories in the music industry.

Parton, 79, has become a cultural icon, celebrated not only for chart-topping hits like “9 to 5” and “I Will Always Love You,” but also for her philanthropy, business ventures, and effortless charm.

Here’s a complete timeline of Parton’s decades in the public eye and her remarkable career.

Dolly Parton was born in Locust Ridge, Tennessee, on January 19, 1946.

The fourth of 12 children, Parton was born to a poor family in rural Appalachia.

Parton’s father, Robert Lee, was a tobacco farmer and a construction worker who never learned to read or write, having dropped out of school as a young child.

Her mother, Avie Lee Owens, was a preacher’s daughter who spent most of her life raising and caring for her children.

Parton always knew she wanted to be a star. In the early days of her musical career, she sang barefoot on the front porch of her family’s home in the mountains, a two-room log cabin with no running water or electricity.

In 1951, at just 5 years old, Parton wrote her first song, “Little Tiny Tassel Top.”

Two years later, in 1953, Parton was so enthusiastic about playing music that she made her first guitar out of an old mandolin and two bass guitar strings, according to the Library of Congress.

Although Parton’s family was poor, a wealth of musical talent surrounded her.

Biography reported that Parton’s mother sang and played guitar. Her father also played the banjo and guitar, but it was her uncle Bill Owens whom Parton credits with launching her career.

Owens saw the potential in young Dolly and became her first manager, securing her first gig in 1956 as a regular performer on “The Cas Walker Show” in Knoxville, according to the Library of Congress.

He first introduced Parton to the multimillionaire Walker after somehow getting her backstage during the taping of one of his shows. Parton walked up to Walker and said she wanted to work for him, and it worked.

Parton professionally recorded her first single, “Puppy Love,” in 1957.

The Library of Congress reported that Parton wrote the song with her uncle when she was 11 and released the single, along with the B-track “Girl Left Alone,” on Goldband Records in 1959.

Speaking of the 30-hour bus ride to Lake Charles, Louisiana, to record the single, Parton has said, “I don’t think I’ll ever forget the way the inside of that bus smelled. It was a combination of diesel fuel, Naugahyde, and people who were going places.”

The single didn’t garner any commercial success.

At the age of 13, she performed at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry for the first time.

Parton has said it was always her dream to perform at the Opry.

“For me, the Opry is like the song ‘New York, New York’ — if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere,” she said, according to her Opry artist bio.

At age 13, she got her chance. On the night of her performance, Johnny Cash introduced the young Parton and, after singing George Jones’ song “You Gotta Be My Baby,” she received three encores, the Library of Congress reported.

Parton was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry 10 years later in 1969, and in 2019, the TV special “Dolly Parton: 50 Years at the Opry” — though it had actually been 60 years — aired on NBC, honoring her first performance at the famed Opry House.

In a 2019 interview with Variety about the TV special, Parton reminisced about how informative those early days at the Opry were.

“I just have so many memories, even as a child watching the people backstage and just standing out there on that stage where all the great people stood, just thinking maybe some day I could be part of them,” Parton said.

“Now that I’ve been lucky enough and fortunate enough to see that dream come true, I wonder if some little kid might say ‘I bet Dolly Parton once stood here’ or ‘I’m standing where Dolly Parton stood.'”

From 1962 to 1966, Parton and her uncle had mixed success writing and recording songs.

The duo was signed to Tree Publishing and Mercury Records in Nashville in 1962 and recorded the songs “It’s Sure Gonna Hurt” and “The Love You Gave.”

The songs didn’t make the charts, and the label dropped Parton and Owens, according to the Library of Congress.

Despite this, Parton has said it was magical hearing herself on the radio.

“I will never forget hearing [myself] on a Knoxville station, WIVK,” she said. “There I was, actually hearing myself sing, not on a tape or studio monitor but on a real radio station that thousands of people were listening to… at that very moment.

“I was so proud I walked around for days with my chest all stuck out,” she said. “Somehow, nobody noticed.”

Parton recorded and released six songs on the album “Hits Made Famous by Country Queens” in 1963. In 1965, she and her uncle were signed by Fred Foster to Combine Publishing House and Monument Records.

The following year, Bill Phillips charted in the Top 10 twice thanks to two songs written by Parton and Owens: “Put It Off Until Tomorrow” and “The Company You Keep.”

In May 1966, Parton married her husband, Carl Dean.

Parton was 18 when she met 21-year-old Dean outside the Wishy Washy Laundromat in Nashville in 1964.

They were married in Georgia against the wishes of her record label, which thought that marriage would hamper the singer’s career.

“It was just my mother, and Carl, and me,” Parton told CMT in 2016. “We went across the state line to Ringgold, Georgia. My mother made me a little white dress and a little bouquet and a little Bible. But I said, ‘I can’t get married in a courthouse because I’ll never feel married.’ So we found a little Baptist church in town, and went up to Pastor Don Duvall and said, ‘Would you marry us?’ We got pictures on the steps right outside the church.”

Despite his wife’s fame, Dean, a retired businessman who once ran an asphalt-laying company, preferred to stay out of the public eye.

Parton and Dean were married for nearly 60 years before Dean died on March 3 at the age of 82.

Parton’s career began to really take off in 1967.

Parton finally found success on the Billboard country charts in January 1967, with two singles for Monument Records: “Dumb Blonde” (No. 24) and “Something Fishy” (No. 17).

In July of that year, Parton’s first full-length album, “Hello, I’m Dolly,” was also released on Monument.

In September 1967, Parton appeared on “The Porter Wagoner Show,” and by the end of the year, the duo had teamed up to release a version of “The Last Thing on My Mind,” which hit No. 7 on Billboard’s country chart.

RCA signed Parton and Wagoner, and the duo released their first album together, “Just Between You and Me,” the following year.

Parton also released her first solo single, “Just Because I’m a Woman,” the same year. In 1968, Parton and Wagoner took home the Country Music Association award for vocal group of the year and the Music City News award for duet of the year.

Parton earned her first No. 1 hit in 1971.

Following the success of her cover of Jimmie Rodgers’ “Mule Skinner Blues (Blue Yodel No. 8),” which topped out at No. 3 on the Billboard country charts in 1970, Parton’s single “Joshua” was her first chart-topper.

Her 13th solo studio album, “Jolene,” dominated the charts after its release in 1974.

“Jolene” is undoubtedly one of Parton’s best-known hits, and rightfully so.

It reached No. 1 on the country charts and peaked at No. 60 on the Billboard Hot 100. Perhaps most importantly, the song’s success proved Parton has crossover potential in the popular music realm.

Parton’s next four singles — “I Will Always Love You;” “Please Don’t Stop Loving Me” (a duet with Porter); “Love is like a Butterfly;” and “The Bargain Store” — all reached No. 1 on the country charts. In 1975, the CMAs awarded Parton with the Female Vocalist of the Year award.

Due to her solo success, Parton ceased performing on Porter Wagoner’s TV show and road show in 1974, and in 1976, she severed all professional ties with Wagoner.

In its place, Parton created “Dolly,” her first — but certainly not her last — syndicated TV show, which ran for one year.

Parton had another standout year in 1977 thanks to a pair of critically acclaimed albums.

Parton released both “New Harvest… First Gathering” and “Here You Come Again” in 1977, in February and October, respectively. “Here You Come Again” went on to achieve platinum status in 1978 — her first album to sell one million copies.

“Here You Come Again” signaled a monumental shift in the singer’s sound and career trajectory. She tapped pop producer Gary Klein to work on the album, and she recruited outside writers to compose some of its songs, The Boot reported.

Parton had shown potential as a pop singer on previous albums, but her 1977 hits solidified her position as a pop sensation and helped pave the way for more pop-oriented hits, such as “9 to 5.”

The album also earned Parton a Grammy Award for best female country vocal performance.

Parton starred in her first film, “9 to 5” in 1980, which featured her hit song of the same name.

Dolly Parton made her silver screen debut in her 1980 comedy “9 to 5,” and contributed the hit song of the same name to the film’s soundtrack.

It turned out to be the pinnacle of Parton’s career so far, and the song soared to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Parton’s performance and song earned her a slew of award nominations, including from the Golden Globes for new female star of the year in a motion picture, best actress in a motion picture, and best original song; from the Oscars for best original song; and from the People’s Choice Award for favorite theme/song from a motion picture.

Although she didn’t win any of these awards, Parton was also nominated for four Grammys and won two of them for best country song and best female country vocal performance.

Parton’s success grew exponentially in the early 1980s, following the release of “9 to 5.”

Although the song was released on the album “Jolene” in 1974, it was Parton’s performance in the 1982 film “The Best Little W—-house in Texas” that helped popularize “I Will Always Love You.”

Parton tweaked the song, shifting its country roots and giving it a more pop-centric sound. Her new angle on the song paid off — Parton earned a Grammy nomination for best female country vocal performance.

Later in the 1992 film “The Bodyguard,” Whitney Houston once again popularized the song with her famous R&B version, which spent what was then a record-breaking 14 weeks at No. 1, Houston’s website reported.

Parton continued to ride the wave of success into 1983 when she teamed up with Kenny Rogers for the hit single “Islands In The Stream,” which reached No. 1 on pop, country, and contemporary charts and earned numerous award nominations.

Now a proven actor, Parton began securing acting roles alongside heavy-hitters of the ’80s, including Sylvester Stallone in “Rhinestone Cowboy” in 1984.

Parton opened her Dollywood theme park in 1986. It was an attempt to increase employment and revenue near her hometown.

Parton is known for her generosity, but the initiative she’s best known for is her theme park, Dollywood, which she built in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, near her hometown.

During the park’s 25th season in 2010, Parton told the Associated Press that she always intended to return to her home and help better the lives of everyone who supported her as a young aspiring musician.

“I always thought that if I made it big or got successful at what I had started out to do, that I wanted to come back to my part of the country and do something great, something that would bring a lot of jobs into this area,” Parton said. “Sure enough, I was lucky, and God was good to me and things happened good. We started the park, and 25 years later, we’re still at it.”

In 1988, Parton founded the Dollywood Foundation. In the early 1990s, the foundation promised $500 to area seventh- and eighth-grade students who went on to graduate from high school.

In doing so, she decreased the dropout rate from 35% to 6%, according to the organization’s website.

Today, the initiative has morphed into serving many different causes, including Parton’s Imagination Library, which has provided hundreds of millions of free books to children around the world.

The same year, Parton was also inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Among the many accolades that earned her entry into the Hall of Fame, her artist page cites that she was the first female country artist to record two No. 1 pop singles, both of which she wrote herself.

She was also the first female country artist to be nominated for an Academy Award and the first female songwriter to win BMI’s Five-Million Air award, given for 5 million radio performances of “I Will Always Love You.”

Parton’s 1987 album, “Trio,” with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris, was released to critical acclaim.

In addition to their cover of Ronnie Spector’s song “To Know Him is to Love Him” reaching No. 1 on the Country Singles Chart, “Trio” also won a Grammy for best country performance by a duo or group, the Academy of Country Music Award for album of the year, and won the CMA’s award for vocal event of the year.

In 1991, Parton teamed up with Ricky Van Shelton for another No. 1 hit.

Parton tapped Van Shelton to sing the song “Rockin’ Years” off the album “Eagle When She Flies,” which earned Parton another No. 1 hit.

In 1994, Parton released her first book, an autobiography, “Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business.”

According to a description of the book on her website, it “recounts her childhood growing up poor in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and talks about her music, religion, marriage, and many other aspects of her life like her opinions about plastic surgery and her larger-than-life persona.”

The book charted on The New York Times bestseller list for two months following its release.

From 1999 to 2003, Parton released a trio of bluegrass albums that proved just as successful as her country and pop material.

Parton’s first bluegrass album, 1999’s “The Grass Is Blue,” won a Grammy in 2000 for the best bluegrass album.

She followed it up in 2001 with “Little Sparrow,” a bluegrass and folk album that won a Grammy for best female country vocal performance and was nominated for best bluegrass album.

In 2002, she released “Halos and Horns,” which featured a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” and earned Parton two more Grammy nominations.

The Library of Congress awarded Parton with the Living Legends Medal in 2004.

The award recognizes “individuals who have made significant contributions to America’s cultural, scientific and social heritage,” according to the Library of Congress. Other musicians to win the award include Johnny Cash and Yo-Yo Ma.

While presenting the award to Parton during a concert in 2004, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington commended the singer’s meteoric musical career while staying true to her roots and her desire to help others.

“Dolly Parton has made an indelible mark on pop culture,” Billington said, according to the Library of Congress. “Her contributions to crossover music, her ability to give voice to women’s issues, and the retention of her early Appalachian roots all stand as tribute to the artistry, heart, and soul that Dolly brings to all she does.”

Dolly Parton was one of five recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2006.

Parton, conductor Zubin Mehta, director Steven Spielberg, musician Smokey Robinson, and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber were recognized for their lifelong contributions to American culture.

In 2011, the Recording Academy presented Parton with the lifetime achievement award.

Roughly 54 years after releasing her first song, Parton received one of the music realm’s most prestigious awards.

In a Grammys article honoring Parton, country singer Miranda Lambert wrote of the singer’s masterful lyricism, diverse contributions to American culture, and her dedication to her roots.

“Dolly has proven herself well beyond the boundaries of country music, but she has carried the banner for country music no matter where her career has taken her,” Lambert wrote. “From her days getting started on ‘The Porter Wagoner Show’ to topping the country music charts to her critically acclaimed bluegrass albums and winning every award in between, Dolly has become timeless.”

The movie “Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors” was released in 2015 and told the true story of the singer’s rise to fame.

The movie explores Parton’s childhood and the struggles her family faced living in the foothills of Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains.

The sequel, “Dolly Parton’s Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love,” was released in 2016.

Guinness World Records honored Parton with two world records in 2018.

In 2018, the organization awarded Parton with two distinctions: the female artist with the most hits (107) on the US Hot Country Songs chart by a female artist and the most decades (six) with a Top 20 hit on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart.

When asked how it feels to have made music that has endured for so long, Parton said, “It’s a good feeling to know that I’ve had hit songs through all those decades, it makes me feel like I’m about 100, which it won’t be long ’till I am.”

“I’m just honored and proud that people have loved my music for all of these years,” she said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Parton made headlines for her donations.

Parton earned glowing headlines late in 2020 for making a $1 million donation to help fund the development of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.

In the new decade, she showed no signs of slowing down, airing the TV special “A Holly Dolly Christmas” in December 2020 on CBS, and releasing a new Christmas album in October 2021.

In July 2021, Parton recreated her 1978 Playboy cover for her husband Carl Dean’s birthday.

She had told “60 Minutes Australia” in March 2020 that to celebrate her birthday, she’d love to appear on the cover of Playboy Magazine, just as she did when she was 32 in 1978.

“I did Playboy years ago. I thought it’d be such a hoot if they’ll go for it. I don’t know if they will, if I could be on the cover again when I’m 75,” she told anchor Tom Steinfort.

The following year, she shared an update with her fans.

“Remember some time back I said I was going to pose on the Playboy magazine when I was 75? Well, I’m 75, and they don’t have a magazine anymore,” Parton said in an Instagram video while wearing the Playboy bunny costume.

Parton said in the video that Dean “loved” the original cover, and she did a photo shoot to “make him happy” on his birthday. She presented him with a framed set of photos, one of the original cover and one from the new photo shoot, while wearing the bunny suit.

“He still thinks I’m a hot chick after 57 years,” she said. “And I’m not gonna try and talk him out of that.”

Parton was nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s Class of 2022 but originally turned it down.

“Even though I am extremely flattered and grateful to be nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, I don’t feel that I have earned that right,” she said in a statement in March 2022. “I really do not want votes to be split because of me, so I must respectfully bow out.”

Parton was one of 17 artists shortlisted and one of seven first-time nominees, alongside artists like Eminem, Lionel Richie, and Carly Simon.

“I do hope that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame will understand and be willing to consider me again — if I’m ever worthy,” she wrote in a statement on Instagram in March 2022. “This has, however, inspired me to put out a hopefully great rock ‘n’ roll album at some point in the future, which I have always wanted to do!”

“I wish all of the nominees good luck and thank you again for the compliment,” she concluded. “Rock on!”

However, she later changed her tune and said she would accept the honor if voted in.

When asked what she would do if she received enough fan votes to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, Parton said, “I’ll accept gracefully. I’ll just say ‘Thanks’ and I will accept it because the fans vote,” she told NPR’s “Morning Edition” in April.

“It was always my belief that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was for people in rock music,” she said. “I have found out lately it’s not necessarily that. But if they can’t go there to be recognized, where can they go? And so I felt like I was taking away from someone that maybe deserved it certainly more than me since I never considered myself a rock artist. But obviously, there’s more to it than that.”

On May 4, 2022, it was announced that Dolly Parton would officially be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

She was joined by fellow inductees Eminem, Lionel Richie, Carly Simon, Eurythmics, Duran Duran, and Pat Benatar.

“I am honored and humbled by the fact that I have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,” Parton wrote in an Instagram post. “Of course, I will accept it gracefully. Thanks to everyone that voted for me and to everyone at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I will continue to work hard and try to live up to the honor.”

She was inducted at a ceremony on November 5, 2022, in Los Angeles.

Parton performed alongside her goddaughter Miley Cyrus on New Year’s Eve in 2022.

The pair performed a number of songs together at Cyrus’ second annual New Year’s Eve Party, including the singer’s hit song “Jolene” and a mashup of Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball” and Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.”

In September 2025, Dolly Parton postponed her Las Vegas residency amid “health challenges.”

Parton was originally scheduled to perform six shows at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in December 2025, but rescheduled the shows for 2026, saying she has “been dealing with some health challenges, and my doctors tell me that I must have a few procedures.”

“In all seriousness, given this, I am not going to be able to rehearse and put together the show that I want you to see, and the show that you deserve to see,” Parton wrote in an Instagram statement. “You pay good money to see me perform, and I want to be at my best for you.

“I just need a little time to get show ready, as they say,” she said. “And don’t worry about me quitting the business because God hasn’t said anything about stopping yet.”

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