Bishop Mark Beckman raises the host during his ordination and installation Mass at the Knoxville Convention Center in Tennessee July 26, 2024. He became the fourth shepherd of the church in East Tennessee. (OSV News photo\/Gabrielle Nolan, The East Tennessee Catholic)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBorn in 1946 in Locust Ridge, Tennessee, Parton \u2014 the fourth of 12 children \u2014 was \u201ca daughter of Sevier County,\u201d said the Diocese of Knoxville in an Aug. 26 statement.<\/p>\n
Parton spoke candidly about the poverty she and her family had experienced, as well as the faith and the musical gifts they shared in the heart of Appalachia.<\/p>\n
As a child, she sang in both church and on television, even debuting at the Grand Ole Opry \u2014 the self-described \u201cmother church of country music\u201d \u2014 in 1959 when she was just 13.<\/p>\n
\u201cDolly was born and raised in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains,\u201d said the Diocese of Knoxville in its statement. \u201cShe first sang in a small Pentecostal church, long before the world knew her name. She never hid her faith. It showed up in the hymns she recorded across six decades, in how openly she talked about God.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parton\u2019s choir-backed cover of Don Francisco\u2019s song \u201cHe\u2019s Alive\u201d \u2014 which recounts the Resurrection from Peter\u2019s perspective \u2014 galvanized fans at the 1989 Country Music Awards, with Parton often performing and posting the song on social media over the years.<\/p>\n
As she ascended in the entertainment industry \u2014 finding success in the fields of country and pop music, developing a career in film, launching multiple business enterprises and supporting numerous charitable efforts \u2014 Parton\u2019s impact spread.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer life carried the spirit of our mountain home far beyond the Smokies,\u201d said the Diocese of Knoxville in its statement.<\/p>\n
In particular, the diocese noted Parton\u2019s Imagination Library, which began in 1995 as an effort to provide books to children in Sevier County and now delivers free books to kids throughout the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. As of 2025, the library had distributed close to 305 million books in total.<\/p>\n
Parton had launched the effort in honor of her father, a sharecropper who had never learned how to read or write.<\/p>\n
\u201cEast Tennessee knew Dolly Parton as more than a world-famous star,\u201d said the diocese. \u201cWe knew her as one of our own. She was shaped by these hills and these churches. Her life shows what can grow from faith, perseverance, imagination, and love for one\u2019s neighbors \u2014 even from humble beginnings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X @GinaJesseReina.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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