Flags are flying at half-staff in the Twin Cities and beyond in honor of Dolly Parton, the beloved iconic country singer, songwriter, actress, and philanthropist, who passed away on Aug. 25 at the age of 80 shortly after being diagnosed with cancer.
Leominster Veterans Services Administrative Assistant Jolene Constant posted a photo of the flag lowered in front of the veterans center on West Street accompanied by audio of Parton singing “Put a Little Love in Your Heart.”
“I always get emotional and so proud of being able to lower and raise this flag for almost 11 years,” Constant wrote. “Hand to heart for you Queen.”
Constant is named after, you guessed it, Parton’s 1974 hit single “Jolene,” one of over 5,000 songs the Tennessee native composed thorough her prolific career. Constant said that before she was born her parents were living in Alberta, Canada in 1976, where there was one radio station.
Her father Denis came home from laying foundations one day and said, “I heard a name today for the baby” and her mom Janice said, “I did too.”
“They both said Jolene!,” Constant said. “[My mom] was shopping in a fabric store to make my baby clothes and she heard the song and fell in love with the name while dad heard it at work.”
Fitchburg Mayor Sam Squailia posted a picture of the U.S. flag lowered in front of the Legislative Building next door to City Hall on Main Street, a photograph taken by city resident John Hisman.
“In accordance with a Presidential proclamation and an order from Governor Maura Healey, the United States and Commonwealth of Massachusetts flags will remain at half-staff through sunset on September 1, 2026,” Squailia said in the post. “Dolly Parton’s music, generosity, humor, and unmistakable spirit touched generations of Americans. We join communities across the Commonwealth and the country in honoring her life and legacy.”
The day after Parton died Healey posted photos of several bridges in Boston lit up pink in honor of Parton.
“We will always love you, Dolly,” Healey wrote, a reference to Parton’s song “I Will Always Love You” which became a smash hit after Whitney Houston recorded her Grammy-winning version of it for her 1992 movie “The Bodyguard.”
Parton took the royalties she made from that, around $10 million dollars, and used it to purchase an office complex and strip mall in Sevier Park, a predominantly Black neighborhood in Nashville, investing it in the community around it. She called it “the house that Whitney built” and didn’t reveal publicly what she had done for nearly three decades.
There are many stories like this about Parton generously giving away her wealth, always quietly and without fanfare. This includes a $1 million donation she made to help fund crucial research behind Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, with that support being credited to getting the vaccines to more people, sooner.
These are just some of the many examples of Parton’s extraordinary legacy extending far beyond the country music realm. She sang about and spoke often of her Christian faith and openly demonstrated her allyship and love for her LGBTQ+ fans, cementing her status as an LGBTQ+ icon.
“If people want to pass judgment, they’re already sinning,” she said about her queer fans during a 2014 Billboard magazine interview, adding, “I try to love everybody.”
Parton wrote “Travelin’ Thru” for the 2005 film Transamerica about a transgender woman traveling across the country with her son, which earned her an Academy Award nomination for best original song. She performed her original song during the 2006 Oscars ceremony, bringing her anthem about transformation and courage to one of the world’s largest stages.
Dolly Parton’s younger sister Stella Parton recently revealed that the singer offered to test experimental cancer drugs before she died “in the hope of helping others in the future.”
“My sister was one of the most generous, thoughtful and kind people I’ve ever known,” Stella wrote in a moving tribute shared on Facebook Aug. 27. “What the world saw is exactly who she was.”
One of Parton’s accomplishments she was most proud of is the foundation that has gifted millions of books to children across the world. Inspired by her father’s inability to read and write, the country star launched her Imagination Library program in 1995 for kids in her home county and today, it spans five countries and gifts millions of free books each month to children around the world including in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and Republic of Ireland.
Brenda O’Neill is organizing a Dolly Day at her Little Free Library (LFL) on Penn Street in Leominster.
“If you have a child then chances are you have a book from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library program somewhere in your home,” the city resident posted on social media. “This program distributes free books to children throughout the world, 332,411,218 so far and counting!!!”
In honor of the star and her passing, O’Neill is planning to have a Dolly Day at her LFL sometime next month featuring books from Parton’s Imagination Library program.
“If you have any of these books, no longer being loved on your shelves at home, and would like to get them into the hands of new, eager readers, then I would gladly take them to redistribute into the community in honor of Dolly and her legacy of literacy,” O’Neill shared.
She reported that she found some of the books in the Leominster Public Library children’s room and has some of her own, which she will add to the ones donated. Books can be dropped off and left in the LFL anytime, in a bag or box on her front steps, or O’Neill would “gladly schedule a pickup at your home.”
“I’m just trying to round up a good pile of book,” she said. “Once I feel like I have enough to put out I’ll schedule the date for a non-rainy weather day, but it will definitely be a weekend in September.”
O’Neill went on to say something happened recently that can only be described as kismet.
“Strangely, before Dolly passed, someone left a bunch of souvenir foldable cardboard snack containers from Dollywood in my Little Free Pantry so I’m going to put those out as well,” she said. “I’ll have hopefully a bunch of Imagination Library books but also just tons of children’s books in general in the spirit of Dolly’s legacy of literacy.”
Original article
Comments