Dolly Parton’s Appalachian legacy

By Marlee Giles | Sept. 29, 2026

Dolly Parton, a regional and, honestly, national icon, passed away on Aug. 25 at 80. She was born and raised in the Great Smoky Mountains and is known for her extensive music discography, acting experience and charity work. She was an icon of the area not only because of Dollywood, a theme park that has provided so many job opportunities for people in the area, but also because of her philanthropy.

As a Knoxville native, I grew up with a Dolly-obsessed aunt and a Steel Magnolia-obsessed mother. I was also a recipient of Imagination Library books. Dolly founded the Imagination Library to fight illiteracy and provide books to children. From my birth in 2005 to August 2010, when I started Kindergarten, I received a new book in the mail every single month. 

Not only was this exciting because it was pretty much the only mail I received, but it was exciting because I genuinely loved to read. For five years, Dolly filled my sister’s and my bedroom bookshelves with all kinds of books. 

I remember being bummed when I received Kindergarten Here I Come with a note letting me know this was my last Imagination Library book, but my younger sister still received books for three more years after that. What a joy it was, and is, for us to share all 120 books with the Imagination Library shipping label on the back. We still have every single one.

Randall Puckett (‘15) is Dolly’s first cousin once removed, and when he was asked about his Imagination Library experience, he shared his love for the program and Dolly’s pure talent. He never received any Imagination Library books of his own, having started school before the program was founded, but his wife grew up receiving them, and now his son does.

“Dolly’s mother, Avie Lee, and my grandmother, Dorothy Jo, were sisters. My grandmother was a songwriter and minister whom Dolly has cited as an early influence on her music. She and Dolly co-wrote several songs, including “Daddy was an Old Time Preacher Man,” which was recorded by Dolly and Porter Wagoner in 1970,” Puckett shared.

“As a scholar and a bibliophile, I’m probably biased, but I’m as proud to have been related to the “book lady” as I am to have been related to the lady who wrote ‘Jolene,’” Puckett explained.

“My 18-month-old son and I read a story together every night before he goes to sleep, and it’s especially poignant that many of them come from books sent from his cousin Dolly.”

His relation to Dolly might be distant, but it is clear that anyone in Dolly’s circle found themselves deeply impacted. Puckett’s father, Dwight Puckett, grew up around the Partons. Dwight Puckett started playing the drums at an early age, and he left school to join a band their uncle had formed to back up Dolly on the road. 

They toured the eastern seaboard during these years, and in 1967, at age 14, Dwight played drums for her on the Cas Walker show in Knoxville, one of her earliest television appearances. Then, when Dolly was preparing to leave the Porter Wagoner show in the mid 1970s, Dwight joined her band again. He was her drummer from about 1974 to 1977 as they toured the continental U.S. and England. 

“For those intrepid Dolly fans who ignored the critics and chose to watch the movie Rhinestone, they can see my Dad playing drums in a bar band for a total of about two seconds of screen time,” Puckett shared.

“It would be difficult to overstate the impact she had on my childhood. By the time I was born, Dad was playing drums in a show at Dollywood, and so in a sense, I literally grew up in a world Dolly invented.”

Puckett went on to explain the impact Dollywood had on the region, an impact he truly witnessed firsthand. He said Sevier County has been utterly transformed economically and demographically since Dolly became business partners with the Herschend family in the mid 1980s. 

“It may seem ironic to say this about a theme park, driven more by commercial interests than by concerns about cultural preservation, but Dollywood has given some very talented musicians both inside and outside the family a platform they might not otherwise have had,” Puckett said.

He explained that many of these musicians specialized in roots music, something that depends on a relatively small cohort of practitioners for their survival. 

“The success of Dollywood, in particular, has attracted businesses and investors who couldn’t have found Pigeon Forge on a map just a few generations ago. This has made the area more dynamic and diverse, but also more stratified. In short, it’s remade the cultural geography of East Tennessee as we know it today,” Puckett explained.

Puckett also shared about Dolly’s contribution to a program at Maryville College, a donation that was not really published about at the time. 

Doug Sofer, Puckett’s advisor at the time, is the founding coordinator of the Great Smokies Experience, an environmental studies course offered by Maryville College and the Tremont Institute in which high school students live and study inside the national park during the summer. 

“When I was an undergrad, Doug asked me whether I might be interested in helping him research funding opportunities for the program. Programs like the Great Smokies Experience often rely on grants to survive from year to year. That they do survive is a testament to the hard work of people like Doug,” Puckett said.

“He didn’t know at that time about my connection to Dolly, but I thought it might be worthwhile to ask whether she might be willing to support the program. I wrote her a letter and waited. Without knowing what to expect, I was thrilled to see a letter from her in the mail with a check made out to Maryville College. Getting to tell Doug about it was one of the highlights of my time at Maryville College. To my knowledge, we never publicized her contribution, and she would never have asked us to do so.”

When asked more specifically about her death, Puckett had some feelings to share:

“I want to add that it’s been an especially sad [time] for my dad, and I drove down from Virginia primarily to support him. They knew each other before she was an international celebrity and a cultural icon. He got to see her become these things from behind a drum set, and all before his 25th birthday. I know he’s incredibly grateful to Dolly for those experiences, and my family is no less grateful for the many acts of kindness – big and small – she showed us over the years.”

MC President Bryan Coker released a public statement the day of her passing, talking about her impact on the region. But more personally, he spoke privately about his late mother’s adoration of Dolly.

“I was largely raised by a single mom who was surrounded by many other strong independent Southern women. For all of them, Dolly was an icon — a woman from this region who defied expectations and norms and did big things — yet Dolly never forgot where she came [from]. She uplifted Southern Appalachia and chose to give back in every possible way,” Coker said.

“Dolly’s passing has caused me to reflect a great deal on those strong Southern women, including my late mom, who were all so influential in my growth and development.”

Dolly’s impact stretches to people of all ages and backgrounds; she will be deeply missed in Appalachia and around the world.