WCOM mourns the loss, and this weekend after her passing several shows plan to honor her, including:
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Out on the Edge (Monday 3-4pm)
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Licks and Lyrics (Saturday 3-4pm)
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Classic Country Saturday Night by Joe Don Baker (Saturday 8-10pm)
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The Whammy Douglas Radio Hour (Friday 9-10pm)
The singer Dolly Parton, who has died aged 80 after suffering from cancer, had a ready fund of quips, most mercilessly self-deprecating. “It takes a lot of money to look this cheap” was perhaps the most famous, and undoubtedly the one that best captured her appetite for glitz and mischief. Bountiful talent as a singer and songwriter was the bedrock of her success, but her wit and maximalist approach also charmed the public. She was a much-loved figure even to those who knew none of her music apart from the huge hits
“Borderline absurd” was the Guardian’s approving verdict on that show, during which Parton tooted a rhinestone saxophone and improvised a song called Mud (her crystal-studded white suit survived the weather unsullied). But that was just a workaday gig for a character who was always “on” in public. Ebullient and warm by nature, she created a persona that had no real precedent in country music – she was a fantasy figure who was also very real. The exterior fakery, modeled on “a whore or a high-class prostitute, not even so much high-class”, as she told Rolling Stone in 1980, was grounded by deep intelligence and honesty.
Once she was able to, she helped others: from 1988, local schoolchildren, from 1995, through a book reading program that went international, and later with aid for people affected by wildfires and hurricanes, and medical research including $1mm that resulted in the Moderna COVID vaccine.
(obit adapted from the Guardian USA)
