Dolly Parton grew up without running water or electricity, one of twelve kids in a one-room cabin in the Smoky Mountains - Locust Ridge Tennessee to be exact. And she celebrated her humble beginnings. She wore her story, sang about it in songs like “Coat of Many Colors”.
From our home here in Tennessee, we're grateful for a woman who never let the world talk her out of loving these mountains. She poured her fame back into the place that raised her, and her legacy will continue to serve our state and the world beyond: free books for kids through the Imagination Library, scholarships, Dollywood building jobs that stayed in East Tennessee instead of leaving. Grace and progress, side by side, without forgetting her heritage.
Dolly's story feels familiar to us in Sierra Club. Our volunteers show up year after year, with the same values, loving the same rivers and mountains and getting discovered by new generations that care about the beauty in this world. Dolly never changed who she was to please others. She stayed true to herself, and we kept finding our way back to her.
Sierra Club Tennessee is its own coat of many colors, stitched together out of whatever we've got, made with love and care, to protect something precious. Not so different from what that coat was for a girl in the Smokies a long time ago.
And I (and we) will always love you!
Thank you, Dolly!