Don’t let your dreams be molded by other people who don’t know what you are called to do. Dream big dreams that transcend you and ultimately trust God to help make those dreams come true.                 Arnold Allen

March 1964 – Sevier County High School – Sevierville, Tennessee: She was nervous. At the school assembly the seniors were asked the intriguing question, “What are you going to do in your life after high school?” Several students had already stood up and shared their plans to be doctors, lawyers, preachers, and teachers when she stood and proudly said, “I’m going to Nashville to become a big country music star.” Her classmates laughed. She was mortified.

 The fourth of 12 children, Dolly Rebecca Parton was born in 1946 on Locust Ridge, in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. Her father scratched out a meager living farming a small tobacco patch in rural Appalachia and never learned to read and write. He paid the doctor who delivered Dolly with a bag of oatmeal.

There was no television in the Parton’s small mountain cabin. Instead, an old RCA radio connected them to the world. The highlight of the week for this musical family came on Saturday night when they listened to the Grand Ole Opry radio program broadcast from 200 miles away in Nashville, Tennessee.

Dolly’s grandfather was a Pentecostal preacher, and she grew up singing gospel songs. As a little girl, she created a microphone by nailing a can to a stick. Then, dreaming that she was singing to thousands at the Grand Ole Opry, she would stand on the cabin’s front porch and sing to the chickens for hours. By age 10, Dolly sang on a Sunday morning gospel radio show on WIKV in Knoxville.

The day after graduating high school, she packed her suitcase and left on a Trailways bus for Nashville. Dolly was going to be a big star. Her first success was as a songwriter. She signed on with Combine Publishing, and with the help and advice of her uncle Bill Owen, an established songwriter, she wrote two top ten hits.

At 19, Dolly signed a contract with Monument Records, but to her disappointment, she was pitched as a pop singer. Monument told her that her unique, strong vibrato voice was not suitable for country music. It was not until her song Put it Off Until Tomorrow went to No. 6 on the country chart that they changed their minds.

At 22, Dolly’s country music career took off with the release of her first album Hello, I’m Dolly. Shortly after, she became a regular on the Porter Wagner television show, where her petite stature, curvaceous figure, and funny personality endeared her to country music audiences across America.

Dolly had her first No. 1 country hit with the song Joshua in 1971, followed by two more chart-toppers, Jolene and I Will Always Love You, in 1973. She won the Country Music Award for top female vocalist in 1975 and 1976. The following year, Dolly won her first Grammy Award with her smash hit Here You Come Again, reaching the top of the country music and pop charts.

Dolly’s star status grew in the 1980s, way beyond her wildest high school dreams. She made her acting debut in the hit comedy movie 9 to 5 and sang on its soundtrack. In 1986, she opened her own theme park, Dollywood, in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. The attraction is located a few miles from where she once sang to the chickens on the front porch and is Sevier County’s largest employer.

In a career that has spanned almost 60 years, Dolly Parton has recorded 41 country albums and won numerous awards, including 13 Academy of Country Music Awards. The high school senior who dared to share her dream with her classmates is a member of the Grand Ole Opry and Country Music Hall of Fame. Her organization, Imagination Library, has given away more than 230 million books to children.

In 2014, to the delight of her classmates, Dolly Parton attended her 50^th class reunion at Sevier County High School, which is located at 1200 Dolly Parton Parkway. Today, at 79, she is still dreaming and performing. “As long as I can get up and walk, I am going to keep going,” says Dolly, “writing songs, making music, going on tour, building parks, being creative. I keep thinking big, dreaming big, and praying big. Believe me, you never get too old to dream. You are never too young, either.”