At 13 years old, Dolly Parton stood in awe on the Ryman Auditorium stage in front of the classic WSM microphone stand. It was her Grand Ole Opry debut, and she was introduced by country music great Johnny Cash.
“We’ve got a little girl here from up in East Tennessee,” Cash said. “Her daddy’s listening at home, and she’s gonna be in real trouble if she doesn’t sing tonight.”
“As I heard the band play my introduction, I lifted my head and looked up toward the lights. I smiled at the people in the balcony and then let ‘er rip," Parton recalled about her Opry debut.
She sang George Jones’ “You Gotta Be My Baby,” and though she was just barely a teenager, she received three encores that night. The Opry audience knew they were watching a star being born,
but the little girl from East Tennessee was already a star to the people back home.
As we remember the icon upon hear death Aug. 25, music is always at the heart.
Songs born in the Smoky Mountains
Parton was born in January 1946 to Robert Lee and Avie Lee Parton. She was the fourth of 12 children and the family lived in a two-room cabin in Locust Ridge. The small house was filled with music thanks to her mother.
Parton got her musical talents from her mother's side of the family. Avie Lee was a singer and played hymns, folk songs and traditional mountain music. Parton’s grandfather, the Rev. Jake Owens, played the fiddle. And the family’s connection to music dates back generations, according to smokymountaindna.com, a website for the 2024 Parton family album “Smoky Mountain DNA.”
“I was born to be a songwriter,” Parton says during an immersive movie that plays in the Songteller building of The Dolly Parton Experience at Dollywood.
And she really was. Parton was crafting songs before she could even write. With her mom doing the transcribing, Parton wrote her first song at around 5 years old. It was a tribute to her doll made of corncob with corn silk hair.
Soon, she was singing in her grandfather’s church and, by 8, strumming on a makeshift guitar her uncle Bill Owens made from an old mandolin and two bass strings. Uncle Bill, also a musician, quickly realized Parton’s musical talents were extraordinary. Bill and his sister Estelle often gave Parton rides to local shows and a place to stay in Knoxville so she could perform in the city.
And it was Uncle Bill who helped Parton land the gig that made her become a household name – in Knoxville, at least.
“I was on television before we ever owned one, on local TV,” Parton recalled to USA TODAY about being on Cas Walker's “Farm and Home Hour” variety show.
The Cas Walker show
In 1956, Uncle Bill managed to get Parton backstage at a WIVK radio show where she met businessman and radio and TV personality Cas Walker. The bold 10-year-old walked up to him and told him she wanted to work for him.
And that’s how Parton booked her first TV gig before the Parton family even owned a TV.
Walker created the "Farm and Home Hour" variety show to promote his chain of grocery stores. The show initially aired as an influential radio program on WROL, and later WIVK, that featured artists such as Roy Acuff, Chet Atkins, Carl Butler and Carl Smith.
Parton began appearing on the program after it transitioned to a TV format. During her first appearance, she “performed like a seasoned veteran in front of the crowd,” according to her website, and the crowd cheered for an encore.
“That’s when I got addicted to that feeling of the audience,” Parton recalled on the “Bobby Bones Show” in 2023. “It gave me confidence. It makes you feel like you’re doing something right. I always say that was not because I was so good. It was because I was so young. But that’s just like a shot of adrenaline.”
She also credits Walker as being one of the first people beyond her family who believed she could be a star in show business.
"You know he treated me like a child, but he talked to me like an adult," Parton said, according to 2019 Knox News article. "He told me to look at that television camera like you're talking to an old friend."
Parton regularly performed on the show until she graduated from high school.
First recordings and the road to Nashville
Parton became a well-known figure around town because of her regular radio and live performances. She often made appearances at the popular Pines Theater in historic downtown Sevierville. There’s even an entertainment venue at Dollywood named after the Pines.
She caught the attention of a small independent label in Louisiana, and released her first single, “Puppy Love” in 1959, written with Uncle Bill. The song didn’t chart, but it did make Parton a true recording artist. The niece and uncle duo continued to write together from East Tennessee and were signed to publishing deals in Nashville.
Some of Parton’s earliest recordings were made when she was about 14 and performing for Maryville musician Tommy Covington's "Hayloft Jamboree" radio show. The recordings are available in the collections of the Knox County Public Library's Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound.
The day after graduating from Sevier County High School in 1964, Parton boarded a bus for Music City on her journey to become the Queen of Country Music. But it all started on tiny stages and studios in Knoxville and around East Tennessee.
Devarrick Turner is a trending news reporter. Email devarrick.turner@knoxnews.com.
Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee shaped Dolly Parton’s music, from the Smoky Mountains to the Opry
