The high-wire genius of Dolly Parton, the last great unifier in a divided nation

August 26, 2026 — 9:39am

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

The machinery of American politics sorts everything that it sees. Every moment becomes a litmus test, where every cultural symbol is judged as either MAGA or its opposite.

Artists, companies, cities, sports, and even beer get assigned into these categories. A political age consumes everything it touches.

Dolly Parton was one of the last major exceptions.

She managed a high-wire act of being entirely herself, a vision of American individualism done right, a preacher who could build a congregation without demanding conversion – where its members could briefly see a piece of shared humanity in each other in their shared appreciation of the woman we Americans knew as Saint Dolly.

Her first big break on the country music stage was as the “singing girl” on The Porter Wagoner Show. During her first performance, the audience booed her during the commercial break. They were angry at the change that this brash, blonde starlet with an unusual voice represented.

Country music legend Dolly Parton dies aged 80

The show allowed her star to rise, and eventually she set out on her own. Her break with Wagoner, then the kingmaker of country music, is what inspired Dolly to........

© WA Today