Several generations of Knoxville News Sentinel reporters and photographers have covered Dolly Parton and Dollywood over the years. And getting an interview with Dolly always meant getting a photo with Dolly afterward - she insisted!
Beyond the photos themselves, those who met her in person always had fond memories of Dolly’s wit and charm, her focus on what was being discussed and her willingness to answer whatever questions were presented in an interview, about her career, her namesake theme park or which star might cover one of her most famous songs next.
In the wake of Parton's death on Aug. 25 at age 80, here are some memories of current and past Knox News journalists who had the good fortune of making that personal connection with the Queen
of Country.
Devarrick Turner
Leading up to an interview with Dolly Parton, I was always a little nervous. No matter how prepared I was, it was still the Dolly Parton – someone I had admired since I was a little kid singing her songs anytime one came on the car radio.
One moment with her that has replayed in my mind was when we chatted on opening day of Dollywood’s 40th season. She immediately greeted me with a joke as I walked into the room and asked how I was doing. I said, “I’m doing OK.”
“You didn't say that with a lot of gusto,” she replied. After I admitted to being nervous, she was genuinely shocked.
“With me?! I thought you was over that by now. I thought we agreed on that the last time,” she said.
For context, this interview was just a few weeks after her husband of nearly 60 years had died. And what struck me in that moment was that she was trying to make me feel at ease during what was probably not an easy day for her.
But every interview with her was like that. Despite my initial nerves, she always made each meeting feel like I was chatting with a favorite auntie. She answered every question and always had a joke or a funny story on hand.
And it was clear these interactions were sincere. It wasn’t an A-list celebrity doing another press junket or meeting another fan. She made sure to personally connect with me and any Knox News photographer who was there, too.
What made those interviews truly special wasn’t that I was living out dream each time, but that she cared enough to remember our previous meetings and that she wanted to have a good time with us.
Saul Young
I first met Dolly Parton in 1999 on assignment with the late Terry Morrow. Terry was an amazing person and seemed to be personal friends with everyone he interviewed, even Dolly Parton.
Like many people who meet Dolly for the first time, they’re often nervous. I was no different. Compound that with it being the first time I got to personally meet a major celebrity, I was a wreck. Terry assured me that I had nothing to worry about and that my nervousness, especially at the level that it can be compared to a vehicular accident, was unnecessary.
We were escorted to an interview room, Terry and Dolly chatted like old friends, and I began taking photos, relieved I didn’t have to talk to Dolly. I was just too nervous and was happy to just take her picture as she chatted with Terry.
At the end of the interview, I was preparing to leave, but Dolly stopped me and introduced herself. I immediately reverted to a blubbering mess. Dolly, undeterred and probably accustomed to meeting starstruck fans, kept chatting with me until I became comfortable, even insisted that we take a photograph together. The exchange could not have been more than one or two minutes, but by the end of it, Dolly had earned another fan for life.
Twenty-four years later I am again tasked with photographing Dolly Parton one-on-one for the second time in my career. This time it is with the exceptional Devarrick Turner, who also has a gift of being personable with the people he interviews. Unlike my previous experience, I’m a lot less nervous this time. I also know several Dolly songs by heart, a result of being a fan for life. (By the way, “My Tennessee Mountain Home” should have won the Knox News best Dolly song bracket, but I digress.)
As the interview ends, I prepare to leave and just like the first time I met Dolly, I am stopped and asked if I want a photograph with her. I try to be professional and never ask celebrities for personal photos, but Dolly wouldn’t have it. Dolly is seated on a small bench. There’s only enough room for one person so I stand awkwardly beside her, but Dolly won't have that either and insists that I sit down beside her. I am beside myself being beside Dolly. I have listened Dolly Parton’s music and admired her philanthropy for 24 years and here she was insisting that we take a photograph together. It marks one of the finest days of my life.
Later that day, I show my wife the photo of Dolly and me. And jokingly, the first thing she says is why does that woman have her hands on her man. I couldn’t help but think of the song “Jolene” at that moment.
Caitie McMekin
I've been lucky enough to meet Dolly a handful of times. The most memorable was shortly after vaccines became widely available during the COVID-19 pandemic, in May 2021.
Knox News was one of the only outlets to interview Dolly that day at her DreamMore resort, which made the meeting extra special. At the end of our interview, former reporter Allie Clouse and I were able to take an un-masked photo with Dolly, after assuring her we were vaccinated. It was a nice bright spot after months of trudging through daily life during the pandemic.
Brianna Paciorka
As a photographer, and especially one who carries multiple cameras with "fancy" lenses like I do in my job, you often get comments from random people about your equipment. It's usually some variation of the line, "Wow, that's a huge camera!" You nod and smile like you've never heard that joke before and move on.
Earlier this year, reporter Devarrick Turner and I interviewed Dolly on opening day of Dollywood's 40th season. Devarrick and Dolly exchanged a few words as I stood toward the back in the dark, fumbling around with my main camera, which had a longer and white 70-200 lens on it.
Suddenly, Dolly looks over to me, points at my camera and says with a big, genuine laugh, "Are you going to try to take a photo with a Thermos bottle? I think you might want to go get your camera. I think you picked up the wrong thing!"
I remember abruptly picking my head up from my camera and thinking, "What? A Thermos bottle?!" before realizing that, yes, my 70-200 lens did kinda look like a Thermos bottle. And then I was stumped and didn't know what to say (and honestly, I probably said something dumb and boring in response), because what?! Dolly Parton, of all people, made a non-corny camera joke to me? But that might honestly be my favorite part about Dolly from all of the numerous times I've photographed her in interviews and events over the years. She makes the funniest off-the-cuff comments when you least expect them.
Angelina Alcantar
I met Dolly on the opening day of Dollywood in March of 2024. I was excited for the moment to meet Dolly and everyone kept telling me how wonderful she is. When it was finally our turn to meet her, we walked into the interview room and I was immediately star struck. There is Dolly.
After the Devarrick finished the interview with Dolly, we were able to sit down and take a picture with her. I was the first one to take the picture. I sat down next to her, a little distance between us, I was wary about how close I could get to her.
She grabbed me by the shoulder and said, "You can get closer, darling." It made me smile and laugh. I was not ready prepared to be hugged by Dolly. She made me laugh and shook all my nerves away.
When we left the room, our Dollywood escort smiled at us and said that she should have taken a before and after Dolly picture of us because we all had one the biggest smiles on our face after meeting Dolly.
Brenna McDermott
Brenna McDermott worked at Knox News 2018 to 2024.
I interviewed Dolly three times, but the first was the best.
We talked at the kitchen table inside her retired touring bus at Dollywood. All of it – the table, the bus, even Dolly herself – so much tinier than I expected.
I'd already decided beforehand not to ask for a photograph after our interview (chalk it up to the stupidity of youth and taking one's self way. too. seriously). Surely the most beloved woman in the world tired of endless photos with nameless strangers?
I wrapped up my final question, thanked her, and went to stand up when this tiny lady gave me a big gift.
"Y'all want a picture?"
The question seemed like saying "hello" or "goodbye" rather than the tiresome, endless task I'd imagined it might be.
Dolly posed for a photo with me, then the two other Knox News staffers who were there that day.
She volunteered five minutes to save me a lifetime of regret and mark a milestone moment in my career – sitting at a tiny kitchen table on a tiny old tour bus hanging out with the biggest celebrity in the world, the Dolly Parton.
Maggie Jones
Maggie Jones covered Dolly Parton for Knox News from 2017 to 2020.
I remember the first time I met her. To be honest, I was nervous because I had to ask her a question regarding her former publicist Kirt Webster, who had been accused of sexual harassment by former employees and interns in 2017.
I expected it to make our interview tense, but it didn't. Dolly was honest and sincere, and I discovered then how much grace Dolly puts into her interactions, even with people she's just met.
I had the opportunity to interview her several more times after that at Dollywood, when she would come each year to kick off the park's season and introduce new offerings.
In these interviews, Dolly always made sure to give you her full attention and think through her answers. One time, she even shushed everyone around us, so she could hear my questions. I know Dolly has been interviewed countless times, but never once did I see her phone it in or not treat the person asking questions across from her with respect and care.
To so many people, Dolly Parton is larger than life. Her talent spans multiple mediums, from music, movies, entrepreneurship, etc., and this is only eclipsed by her generosity, especially towards the people of East Tennessee.
But to this former reporter, my fondest memories of Dolly are the little things.
Michael Patrick
Michael Patrick has been a photojournalist for 57 years, 40 of those at the Knoxville News Sentinel. He first took photos of Dolly in 1978 for The Tampa Tribune. Recalling that assignment for an article at the time of his 2019 retirement from Knox News, Patrick wrote, "I can tell you she was then, and is now, friendlier, cuter, kinder, sweeter, and more everything than you have imagined."
On one occasion talking to Dolly following a News Sentinel interview, we were waiting for the next team of interviewers to be brought into the room, I said to Dolly, "I’m sure you don’t remember, but we met back in 1978 while you were on tour at the Lakeland Civic Center and I was working for the Tampa Tribune. I was sent to your dressing room because we needed photos for a deadline long before your concert started."
Dolly said, "I just want to know if I was nice to you." I quickly said, "You certainly were." They sent me to the dressing rooms and she said these are horrible. So Dolly said, "Come with me, they are fussing about me doing a sound check anyway." She led me to the stage and sang a song just for me to get some photos of her in action and got her sound check done. In the years to come I found out that is pretty much how she treats everyone – like they are the star.
Terry Morrow
Terry Morrow, a longtime entertainment writer for the Knoxville News Sentinel, covered Dolly Parton for decades, dating back to Dollywood's earliest days. After his death in 2013, Parton said, "Terry Morrow was my favorite reporter. He had kept up with me and Dollywood for nearly 30 years. ... I loved Terry, and I believe he loved me."
In a 2006 article, Morrow recalled years' worth of interviews with Dolly, starting with his first time meeting her in 1986, just after Dollywood's launch.
That first meeting went well, because she allowed me to keep coming back, year after year. We've talked in hotel rooms, on patios, and backstage and on stage at events.
Every time she's been gracious and funny. Over time she took advantage of my natural shyness and would flirt outrageously. None of the flirting made it into my stories. I figure it was never the real story, and it was no one's business. I suspect she never does it for print anyway. She just likes to rattle me with that world-class figure.
While taking me on a personal tour of her first music theater - the now-defunct Music Mansion in Pigeon Forge - she grabbed my arm and steered me from the lobby to the main theater. "Are the lights on in there?" She yelled out to one of the guys on the crew. "If they aren't, leave 'em off. We're goin' in there to make out."
I nearly passed out.
Sometimes I think she keeps granting me personal interviews just to see if I ever will.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Dolly Parton's biggest fans? Possibly Knox News journalists who covered her
