Jimbo Whaley let me in on a secret several hours before he and his band Greenbrier were to take the stage for Bluegrass Night at Wild Wings Café in Farragut.
“We’re gonna try to sing Dolly’s ‘In My Tennessee Mountain Home’” said Whaley. “Right now, I’m not sure we’re gonna be able to make it all the way through.”
At least he’s had practice, sad as it may be. One day after the 1983 death of George Jones, another one of Whaley’s musical heroes, he performed Jones’s chartbusting hit, “He Stopped Loving Her Today.”
“When I got to the verse about ‘they placed a wreath upon his door,’ I ’bout broke up. This one’s not gonna be any easier.”
The Aug. 25 death of Dolly Parton was a double whammy for Whaley. Not only is he a Sevier County native, he worked
alongside the international superstar for seven years as marketing director for her “Dixie Stampede” (now renamed Dolly Parton’s Stampede) show in Pigeon Forge.
“I knew her both as ‘Dolly’ and ‘Miss Parton,’” Whaley chuckled. “She was a pro, the best that ever was. It was ‘Dolly’ most of the time, but ‘Miss Parton’ when it came time to do business. I once told her, ‘You’re not only the best performer, you’re also the best humanitarian. Only you can make a person’s day just by saying hello to them.’”
That was Dolly Parton in a nutshell.
“Under all that makeup, she had a heart of gold,” said Knoxvillian Ken Bell, who retired as president of Dollywood in 2012. “So genuine and so generous. I met a lot of famous people at Dollywood, but there was nobody like her. I feel like I just lost my best friend.”
Bell came to Dollywood from Silver Dollar Cityin Branson, Missouri, in 1985, when Parton teamed with Jack and Keith Herschend to rename the Pigeon Forge Silver Dollar attraction “Dollywood.”
“She was wonderful to work with,” he remembered. “Anytime I was with her in Nashville or at Dollywood, she’d smile and say, “Ken, are we doin’ OK?’ and I’d tell her, ‘Yep, everything’s OK.’ That’s all the direction she ever gave me.”
Tony Lawson, co-founder and general manager of Knoxville radio station WDVX, echoed Bell’s assessment: “She always just stayed Dolly. She brought joy and cheer wherever she went. The world needs more Dolly Partons.”
Perhaps no musicians alive today go as far back with Parton as Knoxville’s Larry Mathis and his longtime performing partner Bud Brewster.
“I started with Cas (Walker) on his ‘Farm and Home Hour’ (WBIR-TV) in 1959,” said the 90-year-old Mathis, “and stayed there until 1970. Me and Bud and Dolly were pals. We were always doin’ songs together, either live on TV or just jammin’ backstage.”
Mathis immediately reminded me of a column I wrote in 1985 about an “almost” professional contract between the three. It featured a black and white photo of the trio.
“Charlie Ledgerwood was a Knoxville car dealer back then,” Mathis recalled. “He cut a tape of Dolly and me and Bud and took it to King Records in Cincinnati. He rode a bus up there. He got to the studio and asked a secretary how long he could have with one of the owners. She said, ‘Three minutes, unless you’ve really got something.’ Charlie stayed with him for over an hour and came out with three contracts. He flew back to Knoxville and brought ’em to us.
“Dolly was a senior (at Sevier County High School) then. We met her at a little restaurant and talked it over. She said, ‘Why, I didn’t know Charlie was goin’ to Cincinnati. I just signed a one-year contract with an outfit in Chattanooga.’ She went to Nashville right out of high school and worked out that one-year contract. Then she really took off.”
Mathis and Brewster often heard from Parton as her career grew. One time was in 2017, when she invited them to Pigeon Forge to retake that old black-and-white photo.
“She wanted an updated color picture of us, standing in the same position, for her museum in Nashville. We cut up and had a great time, even sang some of the old songs.
“When I got cancer four years ago (it’s in remission now, still with monthly treatments) Dolly was one of the first people who called to check on me. Then Vince Gill right after that. They’re both super, down-to-earth folks.”
Although the trio effort failed, Mathis and Brewster went on to many years together with the Pinnacle Boys bluegrass group, touring throughout the U.S. However, that was a sideline job from their main work as a barber (Mathis) and Brewster (owner with daughter Tami of Knoxville’s Pick ‘n’ Grin music store that closed in 2015 after four decades in business.)
Mathis laughed with me the same as he did during our 1985 interview: “Poor ol’ Dolly. Why, if she’d just stayed with me and Bud, we could’ve taught her how to cut hair or sell banjos and guitars!”
Retired News Sentinel columnist Sam Venable can be contacted at sam.venable@outlook.com.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Business partners honor the very professional 'Miss Dolly': 'The best that ever was'
