{"id":11085,"date":"2026-01-16T12:37:32","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T12:37:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thehistoryreader.com\/?p=11085"},"modified":"2026-01-16T17:36:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T17:36:34","slug":"dolly-parton-knows-who-she-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thehistoryreader.com\/cultural-history\/dolly-parton-knows-who-she-is\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolly Parton Knows Who She Is"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"11085\" class=\"elementor elementor-11085\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-e38873e e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"e38873e\" data-element_type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-66f7c27 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"66f7c27\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">by Martha Ackmann<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-ccaf749 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"ccaf749\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><strong>Lifelong fan Martha Ackmann shares with The History Reader why she felt drawn to write her new book, <em>Ain&#8217;t Nobody&#8217;s Fool<\/em>, about music legend Dolly Parton.<\/strong><\/p><hr \/><p>I have loved Dolly Parton\u2019s music for as long as I can remember. I\u2019m attracted to the story-telling of her songs and what she calls the \u201clonesome chord\u201d \u2013 that faraway, melancholy, haunting sound of her bluegrass music. I remember first seeing Dolly Parton on my grandparents\u2019 black-and-white television in St. Louis. She was in her early twenties and the new \u201cgirl singer\u201d on <em>The Porter Wagoner Show. <\/em>Something about her puzzled me. The big hair and curvy figure appeared at odds \u2013 it seemed to me \u2013 with who she might really be. My new biography, <em>Ain\u2019t Nobody\u2019s Fool: The Life and Times of Dolly Parton<\/em>, unravels what interested me in Dolly Parton all those years ago and what interests me still.<\/p><figure id=\"attachment_11087\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11087\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Porter_Wagoner_and_Dolly_Parton_1969.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11087 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thehistoryreader.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Dolly-Parton-and-Porter-Wagner-1969-e1768584181476.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-11087\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner, 1969. Courtesy of Wikipedia. \u00a9 Moeller Talent, Inc.<\/figcaption><\/figure><p>As I began researching Dolly Parton\u2019s life \u2013 scouring archives, talking with music historians, interviewing Dolly\u2019s friends, family, schoolmates, teachers, musicians, producers, even her first boyfriend \u2013 I discovered there was more to Dolly than meets the eye. The young woman who patiently stood behind Porter Wagoner with her hands folded was ablaze with ambition, composing songs at a feverish pace, and eager to step out from the shadows and strike out on her own. Seven years later when she eventually walked away from the popular show for a solo career, she did so with confidence. It wasn\u2019t confidence based what she would do next but how far she knew she would go. Then there was Dolly\u2019s decision to record pop music and appeal to audiences beyond country fans.\u00a0 Nashville music executives thought she had lost her mind.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m not leaving country,\u201d she told them. \u201cI\u2019m taking country with me.\u201d The genre exploded with new listeners.<\/p><p>The head scratching about Dolly continued when she moved from music to motion pictures, then to business with the opening of her theme park in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. Within a few years, Dollywood became nothing less than the economic engine of East Tennessee. As her wealth grew, Dolly took another unprecedented step. Instead of keeping money for herself and becoming a billionaire, she gave her fortune away. She funded research for the COVID Moderna vaccine, assisted in flood and hurricane relief across the Smokies, established health clinics, and created the <a href=\"https:\/\/imaginationlibrary.com\/\">Imagination Library<\/a>, giving over 300 million free books to children all over the world.\u00a0 \u201cAll my life,\u201d Dolly once said, \u201cthere has been this strange thing within me that said, \u201cDo this and that.\u201d She knew when to walk into a room and when to leave. She knew where she was wanted and where she was not.<\/p><p>Dolly describes her image \u2013 the towering hair, the cinched waist, the layers of make-up \u2013 as her \u201cget up&#8221; and admits that she looks like a cartoon of a woman. But Dolly Parton always has known who she is.\u00a0 The dichotomy of looking one way and being another is a strategy. It gives her something to work against, she says. She grabs people\u2019s attention with her look and then bowls them over with how smart, creative, serious, and talented she is. Her look is a country girl\u2019s idea of glam, she likes to say. But for Dolly \u2013 one critic noted \u2013 it is also her superpower.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-93aaeee e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"93aaeee\" data-element_type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-f0afc47 e-con-full e-flex e-con e-child\" data-id=\"f0afc47\" data-element_type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-7847e83 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"7847e83\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"wp-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thehistoryreader.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Martha-Ackmann-200x300.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium wp-image-11088\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thehistoryreader.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Martha-Ackmann-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.thehistoryreader.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Martha-Ackmann.jpg 432w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<figcaption class=\"widget-image-caption wp-caption-text\">Photo credit: Kevin Grady\/Harvard Radcliffe Institute<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-a3c8d18 e-con-full e-flex e-con e-child\" data-id=\"a3c8d18\" data-element_type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-de00439 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"de00439\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><b>Martha Ackmann<\/b>\u00a0is a journalist and author who writes about women who have changed America. Her essays have appeared in\u00a0<i>The Atlantic<\/i>, the\u00a0<i>Paris Review<\/i>,\u00a0<i>The New York Times<\/i>, and\u00a0<i>The Washington Post<\/i>. She also is a frequent commentator for New England Public Radio, and has been featured on CNN, National Public Radio, and the BBC. Martha is the recipient of fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. Her books include:\u00a0<i>The Mercury 13: The True Story of Thirteen Women and the Dream of Space Flight;<\/i>\u00a0<i>Curveball: The Remarkable Story of Toni Stone, the First Woman to Play Professional Baseball in the Negro League<\/i>; and\u00a0<i>These Fevered Days: Ten Pivotal Moments in the Making of Emily Dickinson.<\/i><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Martha Ackmann Lifelong fan Martha Ackmann shares with The History Reader why she felt drawn to write her new book, Ain&#8217;t Nobody&#8217;s Fool, about music legend Dolly Parton. I have loved Dolly Parton\u2019s music for as long as I can remember. I\u2019m attracted to the story-telling of her songs and what she calls the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":11087,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[278,2860,2859,2862,1418,2861],"class_list":["post-11085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultural-history","tag-biography","tag-country-music-history","tag-dolly-parton","tag-dollywood","tag-music-history","tag-pop-culture"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dolly Parton Knows Who She Is - The History Reader : The History Reader<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Fan Martha Ackmann shares with The History Reader why she felt drawn to write her book, Ain\u2019t Nobody\u2019s Fool, about music legend Dolly Parton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thehistoryreader.com\/cultural-history\/dolly-parton-knows-who-she-is\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dolly Parton Knows Who She Is - The History Reader : The History Reader\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fan Martha Ackmann shares with The History Reader why she felt drawn to write her book, Ain\u2019t Nobody\u2019s Fool, about music legend Dolly Parton\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thehistoryreader.com\/cultural-history\/dolly-parton-knows-who-she-is\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The History Reader\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-16T12:37:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-16T17:36:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thehistoryreader.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Dolly-Parton-and-Porter-Wagner-1969-e1768584181476.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sara Beth Haring\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sara Beth Haring\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thehistoryreader.com\/cultural-history\/dolly-parton-knows-who-she-is\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thehistoryreader.com\/cultural-history\/dolly-parton-knows-who-she-is\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sara Beth Haring\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thehistoryreader.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4aa5393ee9bdc20ed7a3d4918c4fbedb\"},\"headline\":\"Dolly Parton Knows Who She Is\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-16T12:37:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-16T17:36:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thehistoryreader.com\/cultural-history\/dolly-parton-knows-who-she-is\/\"},\"wordCount\":727,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thehistoryreader.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thehistoryreader.com\/cultural-history\/dolly-parton-knows-who-she-is\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.thehistoryreader.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Dolly-Parton-and-Porter-Wagner-1969-e1768584181476.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Biography\",\"country music history\",\"Dolly Parton\",\"Dollywood\",\"Music History\",\"pop culture\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Cultural History\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thehistoryreader.com\/cultural-history\/dolly-parton-knows-who-she-is\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thehistoryreader.com\/cultural-history\/dolly-parton-knows-who-she-is\/\",\"name\":\"Dolly Parton Knows Who She Is - 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