The Celebrity Collector: Dolly Parton
From the doctor’s bag at her birth to lyrics written on a shoebox lid, Dolly Parton saved the evidence of her life, and by 2005 it filled the Chasing Rainbows Museum at Dollywood.
Avie Lee Parton and the Coat of Many Colors
When Dolly Parton was a child, her parents could not afford to buy her a winter coat. Her mother, Avie Lee Parton, was given a box of rags, and from it she sewed a coat for her daughter. As she worked, she told Dolly the Bible story of Joseph and the coat of many colors that Jacob gave to his favorite son.
Dolly later recalled that she could not wait to wear her coat of many colors. When she did, her classmates made fun of her for being poor. The experience became one of her most touching songs, “Coat of Many Colors,” and later a children’s book of the same name.
In 2005 the coat could be seen in the Chasing Rainbows Museum at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, along with thousands of personal items from her life and career. It has its own glass case. Behind it hangs a wall-sized photo of children pointing and laughing, a direct reference to the schoolyard scene in the song.
Dolly Parton as a collector of her own life
Dolly Parton is known as a singer, songwriter, actress and author, and she is also a collector. From her childhood in Locust Ridge, Tennessee, in a dirt-poor family with 12 children, she kept mementos from every part of her life. As her fame grew, so did the collection, until it filled a museum.
Besides the glamour pieces, the Grammys, the gowns from her movies, the scripts, posters and guitars, she held on to evidence of where she started. The medical bag of Dr. Robert F. Thomas, the doctor who delivered her, is on display. Her parents, Lee and Avie Lee Parton, paid him with a sack of corn meal, which is one of the few things the museum does not have.
Other relics of her childhood include a tin cup given to her by a first grade teacher, notes she kept in elementary school and the organ from her childhood church. Many performers keep a few souvenirs. Parton kept the ordinary objects of a poor mountain childhood with the same care as the awards, and that choice gives the museum its character.
From Knoxville television to the Porter Wagoner Show
Her hard early years drove her. Her uncle, Bill Owens, bought her a guitar when she was very young, and she learned to play and sing well enough that he booked her on a television variety show in Knoxville by the time she was ten. At 13 she recorded her first song, “Puppy Love,” which she wrote with her uncle, and made her first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry.
The day after she graduated from high school she moved to Nashville. In 1967, after writing a couple of top ten songs with her uncle that another artist recorded, she got the call that launched her career: an invitation to join The Porter Wagoner Show as Wagoner’s singing partner. There she became known for eye-catching outfits, her voice and her songwriting.
She wrote songs on whatever was at hand when an idea came, the backs of envelopes, scraps of paper, receipts and once the top of a shoebox. Many of those scraps are in the museum, including the lyrics to “Coat of Many Colors” and “Light of a Clear Blue Morning.” The largest group sits in a single case holding the lyrics to more than a dozen songs. Handwritten lyrics are prized in music memorabilia because they show a song before it was finished, with the crossings-out still in place.
Dolly Parton’s records, awards and films
By 2005 she had sold more than 100 million records worldwide, won eight CMA awards and seven Grammys, and taken 22 songs to No. 1. All of her awards are in the museum. “I Will Always Love You,” which she wrote as a kind way to end her partnership with Porter Wagoner and go out on her own, reached No. 1 three times, twice for Parton and once for Whitney Houston. Country Music Television named it the No. 1 country love song.
After leaving Wagoner in 1974, she won the CMA Female Vocalist of the Year award in 1975 and 1976 and was named Entertainer of the Year in 1978. Her first film, 9 to 5 with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, brought an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She went on to act with Burt Reynolds in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Sylvester Stallone in Rhinestone, James Woods in Straight Talk, and Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine, Julia Roberts and Daryl Hannah in Steel Magnolias. The gowns from those films hang in the museum. Few stars kept their own history so completely; Marilyn Monroe, asked what she collected, answered with a single word: records.
Dollywood and the Chasing Rainbows Museum
In 1986 Parton joined the owners of Silver Dollar City to turn it into Dollywood. In 2005 the 125-acre park offered more than 30 rides and attractions, country, bluegrass, gospel and mountain music, a dozen East Tennessee craftsmen and women at work, and the Chasing Rainbows Museum. Creating the park was one way she gave back to rural Tennessee, with jobs and an effort to preserve the region’s culture.
Dollywood ranked among the top 50 theme parks in the world and was Tennessee’s top commercial attraction, with 2.2 million visitors a year. Only Great Smoky Mountains National Park drew more visitors in the state. Like the Biltmore Estate across the mountains in North Carolina, it turned a personal collection into a reason to travel.
A tour of Dolly’s attic, cabin and schoolhouse
Visitors entered down a hallway lined with photographs of Parton with friends, family and famous people, then climbed stairs into “the attic of Dolly’s house,” crammed with every kind of memorabilia. Parton appeared by rear-screen video to point out a few pieces, such as old exercise equipment and a rug that used to be in her house.
Doors then opened onto a replica of the cabin where she grew up, which is where the Coat of Many Colors is shown. In the schoolhouse, headphones played lessons, and her graduation picture and band uniform photo were on display. Nearby was a re-creation of the office of Cas Walker, the man who gave her a start, where visitors could hear “Puppy Love” and parts of the old Cas Walker Farm and Home Show. In the Porter Wagoner area, a green screen let visitors “sing with Dolly.”
Parton was born on January 19, and she turned 59 in 2005. For a collector who kept nearly everything, the museum showed how far the line runs from a coat sewn out of rags to a Grammy, and she put both in the same building, a choice as personal as anything in William Randolph Hearst’s collection.
Questions and answers
Who was Avie Lee Parton?
Avie Lee Parton was Dolly Parton’s mother. She and her husband, Lee Parton, raised 12 children in poverty in Locust Ridge, Tennessee. Unable to buy Dolly a winter coat, Avie Lee sewed one from a box of rags while telling her the story of Joseph’s coat of many colors, the memory behind Dolly’s song.
Where is Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors?
The coat is displayed in its own glass case in the Chasing Rainbows Museum at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. It sits in a replica of Parton’s childhood cabin, in front of a wall-sized photo of children pointing and laughing, which recalls the classmates who mocked her for being poor when she wore it.
What is the story of the Coat of Many Colors by Dolly Parton?
As a child Dolly Parton had no winter coat, so her mother sewed one from rags and told her the Bible story of Joseph’s coat. Dolly loved the coat, but schoolmates laughed at her for being poor. She turned the experience into the song Coat of Many Colors and a children’s book of the same name.
What is in the Chasing Rainbows Museum at Dollywood?
In 2005 the museum held thousands of items from Parton’s life: her awards, film gowns, scripts, posters, guitars and handwritten song lyrics, plus childhood pieces such as the doctor’s bag from her birth, a tin cup from a teacher, school notes and the organ from her childhood church.
What was Dolly Parton’s first song?
At age 13 Dolly Parton recorded her first song, Puppy Love, which she co-wrote with her uncle Bill Owens. The same year she made her first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry. Her uncle had bought her a guitar and booked her on a Knoxville television variety show by the time she was ten.