It’s been a month since we lost Dolly Parton and her death still stings. Yes, she lived to be 80 years old. Yes, she was suffering from cancer. But somehow we thought Dolly would live forever. There was so much more work for her to do.
Dolly was a talented singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. She was a smart and astute businesswoman. She was a generous philanthropist whose work is still benefitting people positively in countless ways.
Dolly appealed to hard hat blue collar types and blue-haired punker kids. She appealed to rhinestone clad drag queens and Riot Grrrls clad in their baby doll dresses and Doc Marten’s. She was loved from Appalachia to the Big Apple, from Dollywood to Hollywood, and pretty much from all over the globe. Dolly was love and light in a world of hatred and darkness.
A lot is being written about Dolly and will be for years to come. I wouldn’t be surprised if college classes will be dedicated to Dolly Parton. The Philosophy of Dolly Parton? Yep, I’d take that class. In 2020, Sarah Smarsh published her own take on Dolly Parton and summed up the icon in book She Come By It Natural.
Late last year, I wrote a review of Smarsh’s excellent book, Bone of the Bone-Essays on America by a Daughter of the Working Class. I found Smarsh’s opinions, ideas, and life experience as a member of the working class turned college educated professional to be profound, eye-opening, and compelling. So I was only too willing to get Smarsh’s take on the singular Dolly Parton.
She Come By It Natural was originally published by the music magazine No Depression and then fleshed out into a book. She Come By it Natural is divided into four parts when it comes Dolly’s life, career, and her impact on pop culture, society, and so much more.
Part One-Dolly Parton embodies the working woman’s fight.
Part Two-Dolly Parton masters the art of leaving.
Part Three-Dolly Parton becomes the boss.
Part Four-Dolly Parton cements her icon status.
By now, Parton’s life story. She grew up dirt poor, in a large and loving family. She struck out on her own moving to Nashville knowing her talents would take her far. She thumbed her nose at a sexist industry with her first country hit “Dumb Blonde” asserting herself as not dumb (or actually blonde).
She was cast as the girl singer on The Porter Waggoner Show. And though she appreciated his mentoring she found him too controlling. So against some people’s advisement, Dolly struck out on her own. And instead of putting her career on the skids, Dolly became more and more successful, and not only as a singer. She became a movie star, astute business woman, and philanthropic powerhouse.
But just as the personal is political, so is Dolly Parton, especially when it comes to feminism. Dolly never exactly called herself a feminist but if you think she was an anti-feminist, guess again.
Feminism is often conveyed as for only white, college educated, middle-class, urban women. But it’s also for the women Smarsh was all too familiar with, working class women who struggled hand to mouth and who never got past high school. These include women like her mother and grandmother who faced many challenges but were also tough as nails.
Whether singing of the plight of women in the working world in 9 to 5 or the creativity and resourcefulness of women in Coat of Many Colors, Smarsh expertly conveys how these songs connect to feminism.
She Comes By it Natural is a book written in a thoughtful and compelling way by Smarsh. It’s a slim volume that will definitely make you think and love Dolly Parton even more.
