Parton began performing music in church, where her grandfather was a preacher. By the age of 10, she was playing guitar and appearing as a singer on local television shows. At 13, she made her debut at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry, where Johnny Cash introduced her as “a little girl here from up in East Tennessee.”
After graduating from high school in 1964, Parton moved to Nashville with a suitcase full of songs, following her uncle Bill Owens, who was also a songwriter.
By the mid-1970s, she had established herself as one of Nashville’s leading country stars.
A pop crossover star
Parton followed the success of “Jolene” with another major hit in 1974, “I Will Always Love You”, written as a farewell to her former mentor and collaborator Porter Wagoner. The song helped her win the Country Music Association’s Female Vocalist of the Year award in both 1975 and 1976.
Nearly two decades later, Whitney Houston’s rendition of “I Will Always Love You”, featured on the soundtrack of the 1992 film The Bodyguard, became a global blockbuster and broke sales records. Houston won a Grammy for the performance in 1994, with Parton presenting her the award.
The 1977 pop crossover hit helped establish her as a multi-genre entertainer and earned her first Grammy Award in 1979.
Her other crossover successes included the title song from 9 to 5, the 1980 comedy in which she starred alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. She also recorded “Islands in the Stream” with longtime friend Kenny Rogers. (AP)
