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PHOTOGRAPH BY GILLIAN LAUB
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By Amy Alipio, assistant managing editor
“The Smokies always call me home,” Dolly Parton told me. “I just think it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world.” Last month, “My Tennessee Mountain Home”—her 1972 homage to the corner of Eastern Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains, where she grew up—was named an official state song. The accolade is the latest recognition of how this region—the epicenter of the Dollyverse—has both inspired and been inspired by her. Her lyrics recall a place where “life is peaceful as a baby’s sigh,” where “crickets sing in the fields nearby.”
The prolific singer-songwriter was born in 1946 “in a little one-room shack on the banks of the Little Pigeon River” and started performing at the age of 10 on regional radio in Knoxville. Although her phenomenal talent and unflagging energy have propelled her around the world and into a variety of roles—garnering her an amazingly diverse and enthusiastic fanbase—Parton’s heart remains in Eastern Tennessee. She has built a hospitality empire here, centered in Pigeon Forge and themed to celebrate the landscape and cultures of the Smokies.
Increasingly, the message she spreads is one of respect—for all people, wildlife, and the environment. “We’re just mistreating Mother Nature,” Parton told me. “That’s like being ugly to your mama.”
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