On the day Dolly Parton’s family announced her death, I attended the 10th anniversary celebration for Arts DuPage, a nonprofit that advocates for arts and culture in DuPage County. I had been invited to write and deliver the keynote address about the role that the arts play in keeping our communities thriving and connected.

The news of Parton’s death broke an hour before I was heading to the venue. My original speech, obviously, had to be tossed.

If you’re talking about the power and importance of the arts — particularly the arts as connective tissue — it’s hard to imagine a stronger exemplar than Dolly Parton. She crossed generations. She crossed genres. She crossed political and cultural divides. She was a feminist icon, an LGBTQ ally, a rule-breaking, barrier-busting, chart-topping country music pioneer, a deep-pocketed philanthropist and still, above all, a treasured symbol of Americana.

Chicagoans mourn death of Dolly Parton: ‘How do we go back to normal?’

Chicagoans mourn death of Dolly Parton: ‘How do we go back to normal?’

She started with nothing; her father famously paid the Methodist missionary doctor who delivered her in 1946 with a sack of cornmeal. She was the fourth of 12 children, and they grew up without electricity or running water. Her 1971 song “Coat........

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