SINGER AND SONGWRITER, celebrity and philanthropist, sex symbol and businesswoman, a supporter of liberal causes who retained the loyalty and affection of the most rock-ribbed conservative states.

Dolly Parton’s multi-faceted career, larger-than-life persona and outsized contribution to America’s country music canon, was only part of the story.

The damburst of accolades that followed the announcement of her death are testament to her ability to transcend musical genres and nimbly sidestep cultural boundaries, towering stilettoes notwithstanding. Eleven Grammys, 10 gongs from the Country Music Association, and another 13 from the Academy of Country Music are just the beginning.

There were Emmy Awards, People’s Choice Awards, Oscar and Golden Globe nominations, two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and inductions into the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Gospel Music Hall of Fame and the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame.

Singer Dolly Parton performing in her theme park Dollywood in Pigeon Forge 2010. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

The accolades she notched up for work as a humanitarian and philanthropist are, likewise, legion. But Parton’s better known for repeatedly declining one of America’s most coveted awards: the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, turning both Trump and Biden away when they offered her the US’s highest civilian honour. Trump gave Elvis a posthumous award instead. Biden made do with Bono.

She claimed to have rebuffed Trump because of bad timing – pleading her husband’s illness the first time and an unwillingness to bust Covid travel restrictions the second. When Biden came calling, she declined again, explaining that having refused Trump twice, her acceptance of a Biden medal would look like a partisan act.

Throughout her career, she avoided political landmines and cultural and sexual pigeonholes with a lightness of touch that belied a shrewdness and cognisance that for all her optimism and effervescence, she inhabited an America that was dark, divided and politically treacherous.

Former US President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush at the White House in 2006 with Dolly Parton and other guests, including Andrew Lloyd Webber and Steven Spielberg. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

With humour and empathy, she slipped the bonds of the left and right. Both sides battled to claim her as the ultimate prize in the cultural wars that have ravaged America for almost the entirety of her........

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